Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life

Humans can use the pull of the past to build better futures, according to this compact and perceptive study of nostalgia from Routledge (Profectus), vice president at the Human Flourishing Lab. While often couched as an “enemy of progress,” nostalgia helps people strengthen their sense of self as they consciously “craft a life story” out of significant memories, Routledge writes. It also boosts “feelings of social connectedness” (nostalgic recollections often center relationships) and inspires a sense of broader community engagement (“collective nostalgia” helps people feel linked to a group and its social identity, whether they’re college alumni, Star Trek fans, or a religious community). Routledge draws particularly intriguing insights into the ways nostalgia can allay existential fears of death, as “even the most personal nostalgic memory is connected to a broader cultural framework that helps us feel transcendent in the face of unavoidable mortality.” Explaining psychological concepts in lucid prose, Routledge testifies to the value of looking to the past in a progress-obsessed society, and raises expansive questions about the ways personal meaning is constructed and cemented. It’s an incisive take on a slippery subject. (Dec.)