Editing Nostalgia (section)

{{short description|Feeling sentimentality for the past}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Nostalgic}}
[[File:SaturdayEveningPost30Aug1924.jpg|thumbnail|upright=1.35| The archives director for ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' said that the magazine has been regarded with "a mixture of nostalgia and affection".<ref name="InsideIndBus_20210706">{{cite news |last1=Mills |first1=Wes |title=''Saturday Evening Post'' Celebrates 200 Years |url=https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/saturday-evening-post-celebrates-200-years |work=Inside Indiana Business |date=July 6, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119170819/https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/saturday-evening-post-celebrates-200-years |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |url-status=live }}</ref> Shown: a [[Norman Rockwell]] cover from August 1924.]]
{{Emotion}}

'''Nostalgia''' is a [[sentimentality]] for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.<ref name=boym>{{cite book | last = Boym | first = Svetlana | author-link = Svetlana Boym | title = The Future of Nostalgia | publisher = [[Basic Books]] | year = 2002 | pages = xiii–xiv | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7BbTJ6qVPMcC | isbn = 978-0-465-00708-0 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The word ''nostalgia'' is a [[neoclassical compound]] derived from [[Greek language|Greek]], consisting of {{lang|grc|[[Nostos|νόστος]]}} (''nóstos''), a [[Homer]]ic word meaning "homecoming", and {{lang|grc|ἄλγος}} (''álgos''), meaning "pain"; the word was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by [[Swiss mercenaries]] fighting away from home.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fuentenebro | last2 = de Diego | first2 = F | last3 = Valiente | first3 = C | year = 2014 | title = Nostalgia: a conceptual history | journal = History of Psychiatry | volume = 25 | issue = 4| pages = 404–411 | doi = 10.1177/0957154X14545290| pmid = 25395438}}</ref> Described as a medical condition—a form of [[Depression (mood)|melancholy]]—in the [[early modern period]],<ref name=NYMag20160225/> it became an important [[Trope (literature)|trope]] in [[Romanticism]].<ref name=boym/>

Nostalgia is associated with a longing for the past, its personalities, possibilities, and events, especially the "[[good old days]]" or a "warm childhood".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sedikides|first1=Constantine|last2=Wildschut|first2=Tim|last3=Arndt|first3=Jamie|last4=Routledge|first4=Clay|title=Nostalgia: Past, Present, and Future|journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science|date=October 2008|volume=17|issue=5|pages=304–307|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00595.x |s2cid=220389609|url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/66285/1/Sedikides_Wildschut_Arndt__Routeldge_2008.doc}}</ref> There is a predisposition, caused by [[cognitive bias]]es such as [[rosy retrospection]], for people to view the past more positively and the future more negatively.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rZk6DwAAQBAJ&dq=Oxford%20declinist&pg=PA90 ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang''] edited by Grant Barrett, p. 90.</ref><ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news|last1=Etchells|first1=Pete|title=Declinism: is the world actually getting worse?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/jan/16/declinism-is-the-world-actually-getting-worse|access-date=20 December 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=January 16, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://edge.org/response-detail/26669 |title=The State Of The World Isn't Nearly As Bad As You Think |author=Steven R. Quartz |publisher=[[Edge.org|Edge Foundation, Inc.]] |access-date=2016-02-17}}</ref> When applied to one's beliefs about a [[society]] or [[institution]], this is called [[declinism]], which has been described as "a trick of the mind" and as "an emotional strategy, something comforting to snuggle up to when the present day seems intolerably bleak".<ref name="The Telegraph">{{cite news|last1=Lewis|first1=Jemima|title=Why we yearn for the good old days|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/11349364/Why-we-yearn-for-the-good-old-days.html|access-date=20 December 2016|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=January 16, 2016}}</ref> 

The scientific literature on nostalgia usually refers to nostalgia regarding one's personal life and has mainly studied the effects of nostalgia as induced during these studies. [[Emotion]] is a strong provoker of nostalgia due to the processing of these [[Stimulus (psychology)|stimuli]] first passing through the [[amygdala]], the [[emotional]] seat of the [[brain]]. These recollections of one's past are usually important events, people one cares about, and places where one has spent time. Cultural phenomena such as [[music]],<ref name="psychologytoday.com">{{Cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201105/music-evoked-nostalgia | title=Music-Evoked Nostalgia}}</ref> [[Film|movies]], [[television show]]s,<ref name="nelakonda">{{Cite web|last=Nelakonda|first=Divya|title=Binging on nostalgia – why we replay TV from our youth|url=https://lhsepic.com/2446/in-depth/binging-on-nostalgia-why-we-replay-tv-from-our-youth/|access-date=2022-01-14|website=the Epic}}</ref> and [[video game]]s,<ref name="mccarthy">{{Cite magazine|last=McCarthy|first=Anne|title=Why Retro-Looking Games Get So Much Love|language=en-US|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/story/why-retro-looking-games-get-so-much-love/|access-date=2022-01-14|issn=1059-1028}}</ref> as well as natural phenomena such as [[weather]] and environment<ref name="weather">{{Cite journal|date=2012-12-04|title=Study: Nostalgia Makes Us Warm, and Cold Makes Us Nostalgic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/12/study-nostalgia-makes-us-warm-and-cold-makes-us-nostalgic/265852/|journal=The Atlantic}}</ref> can also be strong triggers of nostalgia.