Looking to the past for early meanings of nostalgia

Excerpt:

Over the next few decades, according to Clay Routledge, a psychologist who studies nostalgia, the condition’s symptoms were folded into the diagnostic criteria of other mental health disorders, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. …

While nostalgia was once a cause for concern, research from the past two decades suggests that it can actually be good for you. Studies conducted by Mr. Routledge and other researchers have found that people grow nostalgic when they face unpleasant emotional states. “From this perspective, nostalgia can be thought of as a psychological defense mechanism that we turn to when life gets difficult,” he said in an interview. During the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, for example, The Times reported that nostalgia acted as an “emotional pacifier.”

Read the full article at The New York Times.