We once thought nostalgia was a disease, but it might be key to our survival
Rather than trying to dispel them, neuroscientists today try to encourage feelings of longing and homesickness in Alzheimer patients. (Pexels/Miguel Á. Padriñán/)We’ve all felt that jab to the soul you get from driving by your old high school haunts or hearing a tune you once danced to. But why is that bittersweet sort of reminiscence so universal?Modern neuroscientists and psychologists know that a healthy dose of nostalgia is good for you, at least if you’re recalling happy days. But there was no sweetness to cut the bitter sensation in 1688, when Johannes Hofer coined the word in his medical dissertation. A combination of the Greek words nostos, or homecoming, and algos, or pain, it was a special type of homesickness associated with soldiers fighting far-off wars—and doctors feared it could kill.Seventeenth-century physicians like Hofer worried such thoughts depleted a patient’s “vital spirits,” draining their energy and putting health at risk,...