A popular Russian joke is this: What did capitalism do after a year that communism could not do in the 1970s? Make communism look good.
By 2015, nearly 70% of Russians said that the breakup in the Soviet Union was a bad thing, and nearly 60% said Stalin had played a major positive role in history. (Recent polls are not that reliable due to Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on political expression.) Many Russians are clearly nostalgic about the era of bread lines, shared apartments and state repression.
They aren't the only ones who sometimes feel nostalgic when it's difficult, unpleasant, or outright bad. Some soldiers returning from the war have long been friendly and deployed for purpose. Former colleagues gather and laugh at the nightmare boss who once intimidated them. Some people miss the first few months of the pandemic when time seems to have stopped. Periodically, social media recalls the empty streets of 2020, the state-mandated personal space and the bubbles that allow people to do nothing.
Nostalgia for terrible things may sound ridiculous, but many people experience it because of the way people mean life illustrates. According to researchers studying nostalgia, the main reason for this phenomenon is that humans want our own past selves to understand our present. Reflecting on the challenging times we endure provides meaning and education for life that seems meaningless. The past was difficultwe think, But we survived, so we must be strong too.
To be sure, part of the explanation is that people tend to romanticize the past, remembering it is more optimistic than it actually is. Thanks to something called “fading affects bias,” negative feelings about events are faster than positive feelings. With a tough experience, we start missing out on its happier aspects and conceal it on the challenge. Experts say nostalgia is often caused by dissatisfaction with the present, thus making the past look better.
But even if people remember adversity clearly, in hindsight, it doesn't seem that bad. When Krystine Batcho, a psychology professor at Le Moyne College, began interviewing childhood memories of different generations, she expected that those who grew up in war or during the Great Depression would have less nostalgia for young people than those who grew up in peace. Or a period of prosperity. But this was not what she discovered.
Instead, people tend to interweave negative memories with ways of overcoming struggles. For example, a person who survived depression told Batcho that he never had enough to eat as a kid. But then he will remember his clever way of trying to find food, such as picking fruit from a neighbor's tree, or he will recall coming home from school and walking at the door to smell the smell of his mother's fresh toast-his little There are indeed luxury goods.
This kind of recollection may provide some perspective on the current issue, making today’s challenges “more likely to overcome and cope with, and it reminds you of what you appreciate what you have,” she told me. “It reminds us that the future is uncertain, but we can think it’s really scary, but we can think it’s really exciting.”
There are few large studies on this topic, but some experimental studies have shown that nostalgia provides a sense of authenticity and a sense of connection between past and present self. Therefore, we often have nostalgia for the corresponding moments in our lives. "People have nostalgia for what gives meaning to life or helping them feel important," said Andrew Abeyta, a psychology professor at Rutgers University. Sometimes these meaningful events can be stressful. , even painful. As Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich wrote in her book Second-hand timemany Russians who grew up in the Soviet era were proudly reminded of war or the battle to rebuild cities. She wrote that those who did not have were very disappointed with the revolution and civil war that took place before our time. "Another investigation found that what Russians miss the Soviet Union the most was "the feeling of being a big country."
Psychologist definition significance Constantine Sedikides, a psychologist at the University of Southampton, said that because people's lives are important, coherent and purposeful, British psychologist Constantine Sedikides said (Constantine Sedikides), many times our actions in challenging times reach this definition - they are important, coherent, and coherent, and purposeful. The turning points in our lives often provide feed for nostalgia and rarely without drama.
Recalling the hardships, reminding you that at least you survived and that your loved ones were helped. "Those people do these things for you, or do them around you, assure you that you have your own self-worth," Pato said. Colleagues’ research found that people who wrote about nostalgia experiences had higher self-esteem than the control group and their relationships were safer.
Memory of relationships forged during difficult times can even positively lead to extreme experiences. In his book tribeSebastian Junger described a taxi driver in Sarajevo, who proudly spoke about his experiences in the country's recent wars when he "he has been in a Special units, the unit slid across enemy lines to help other enclaves surrounded. "Jangger wrote that the war, while shocking, built "a social bond that many people missed very much." “Sometimes remember disasters more deeply than weddings or tropical holidays.”
Nostalgia tells you that your personal history is not only scary or miserable. It helps you to be. This may be why women who work with their children during the pandemic may not want a lack of parenting, but they also won’t shy away from the labor force. Or why women who have recently had babies are often caught by lapels and reconquered them with “birth stories” (in many cases cruel) “birth stories.” It's "a way to solve the negative side and end up with the other side," Batcho said. “There is catharsis.”
Remember that you can understand your life and take a look at your strengths in the fire. You may not want to go back in the past, but you also don't want to forget it.