nostalgia- a diagnosable disease

Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Origin: late 18th century, acute homesickness. from Greek nostos 'return home' + algos 'pain.'

" Someone once told me that there are actually acupressure points in our fingertips that relate to the heart chakra and aid in healing grief, which I like to think might explain the knitting and needle work revival that sprung up after 9/11 and continues today."

"The subjects of loss and memory processes are also contained within nostalgic themes by default. And, these topics are explored in depth by scholars dedicated to photo theory, such as Roland Barthes. Much of this theory explores the idea that every photograph has some degree of melancholy affect in that the instant the image is captured it has already died; the moment is now the past, yet there is an attempt to hold on at the same time. These ideas are also extended to work that references photos or uses photographic processes in its production. Similar ideas about memory function are also explored in the study of Latin American Literature and the discussion of the existence of the phenomena of Realismo Magico (Magical Realism), in which the Jungian ideas of the collective unconscious actively come into play."
Credit: Bethany

Blast from the Past, ArtNews, January 2008

Beauty Knows No Pain, Art Journal, Summer 2004

The Sentimental Image in Contemporary Art

Art21