Nostalgia

NOSTALGIA (from Greek nostos - return to homeland and algos - pain), nostalgia, homesickness. Manifesting in many people in the first moments of life in a new unfamiliar environment, in a new place, among strangers, this feeling in primitive or mentally deficient individuals sometimes takes on clearly pathological forms. Most often, it concerns weak and overly sensitive children and adolescents, sent from their native family to an alien environment for education, into service, etc., sometimes about primitive peasant youths who fell into captivity in a foreign country where they speak an incomprehensible language to them; this condition is also often observed among natives of colonial troops [amok (see) among Indians, Malays, cafard among negroes]. The most common form of reaction in such cases is flight, but sometimes excessive psychic tension is also discharged through a series of aggressive acts. Jaspers and Kretschmer described a number of cases they observed where the matter ended in criminal acts. These concerned 14-17-year-old peasant girls with delayed physical and mental development, sent into service in an alien environment far from their homeland. Tormented by unfamiliar difficult work and the cold demands of their employers, they ended up in a state of not quite clear consciousness setting fire to the house in which they lived and killing the children entrusted to their care (see Impulsive insanity, Infanticide). Amok and cafard some authors classify as epileptoid states; others, especially older authors, connect pathological N. with a tendency to depression in general.