"From the late 17th through the late 19th centuries, nostalgia was mostly viewed as a legitimate medical condition. Doctors argued that it was a physical ailment because they did not yet share the modern, sharp distinction between the mind and the body. Emotions were seen as "the passions" that could directly deplete a person's physical "animal spirits" and vital reserves. Their arguments were underlined by a series of seemingly physical symptoms linked to nostalgic sentiments."
"Some died from starvation, as their nostalgia reached such a peak that they turned from the present entirely. In her book, Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion, Agnes Arnold-Forster lays out the bizarre and often cruel history of a condition that is not a condition today. She shows us that human nature might be the same, but the stories we tell about our feelings have shifted entirely."
Nostalgia was historically classified as a medical condition between the late 17th and late 19th centuries, treated as a physical ailment that depleted a person's vital 'animal spirits.' Physicians connected nostalgic longing to lethargy, fever, heart palpitations, and sometimes fatal outcomes such as starvation. Two main forms were identified: a perilous homesickness for place and a Kantian disease of the imagination — a yearning for youth and simple pleasures. Medical responses could be harsh. Over time cultural and medical narratives changed, recasting nostalgia from a pathological malady into a complex but generally nonpathological emotion.
Read at Big Think
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