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Nostalgia: a ‘forgotten’ psychological disorder*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

George Rosen
Affiliation:
Department of the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, U.S.A.

Extract

Nostalgia, a psychopathological condition affecting individuals who are uprooted, whose social contacts are fragmented, who are isolated and who feel totally frustrated and alienated, was first described in the 17th century and was a problem of considerable interest to physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries. by the 20th century it seemed to have disappeared, but reappeared under other labels.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

Notes and References

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8 Ibid., p. 180. Although Hofer speaks of a Latin name, the words from which he formed the term nostalgia are Greek.

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10 Hofer, op. cit., pp. 182–183.

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13 Ibid., p. 186.

14 Ibid., p. 188.

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16 Jaspers mentions a Professor Detharding of Rostock who published a work on the air of Rostock in 1705 in which he disputed Scheuchzer on nostalgia. This controversy was again brought up by Zedler in 1735, according to Jaspers, but he gives no specific citation.

17 Onomatologia medica completa oder Medicinisches Lexicon das alle Benennungen und Kunstwörter welche der Arzneiwissenschaft und Apoteckerkunst eigen sind deutlich und vollständig erkläret zu allgemeinem Gebrauch, heraus-gegeben von einer Gesellschaft gelehrter Aerzte und mit einer Vorrede begleitet von Herrn D. Albrecht von Haller. Ulm: Franckfurt, in der Gauvinischen Handlung, 1755, p. 1072Google Scholar.

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21 Ibid., p. 341.

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23 Idem, pp. 105–108.

24 Idem, pp. 108–109.

25 Idem, pp. 110–111.

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27 For a more extensive discussion of this theme see Rosen, George (1972). Percussion and nostalgia. Journal of the History of Medicine, 27, 448450.Google ScholarPubMed

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30 See footnote no. 7.

31 Hofer, op. cit., p. 183.

32 Zimmermann, op. cit., p. 485.

33 War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1713); War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738); War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748); Seven Years War (1756–1763), and then the wars connected with the American and French Revolutions toward the end of the century.

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45 Percy and Laurent, op. cit., p. 269. For an interesting view of Percy see Journal des Campagnes du Baron Percy, Chirurgien en Chef de la Grande Armée (1754–1825), publié d'après les manuscrits inédits … par Emile Longin, Paris, Plon-Nourrit: Paris, 1904.

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48 Ibid., pp. 177–179. For the cruise of 1787–88 to whichLarrey refers see Larrey, D. J.: Mémoires de Chirurgie Militaire, et Campagnes, vol. 1, Paris, J. Smith, 1812, Pp. 2848Google Scholar (see Pp. 45–48).

49 This is borne out by a comparison between the essay on nostalgia and his account in volume IV of his Memoires.… vol. 4, Paris, J. Smith, 1817, Pp. 104–153 (see particularly Pp. 125–147).

50 Larrey, op. cit., pp. 157–159.

51 Matthey, Andre (1816). Nouvelles Recherches sur les Maladies de l'Esprit, Précedées de Considérations sur les Difficultés de l'Art de Guérir, pp. 9495. J.-J.Pasch oud: Paris.Google Scholar

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68 This aspect of nostalgia was discussed by Albert Deutsch in his account of military psychiatry during the Civil War. However, he did not relate this episode to the larger history of nostalgia. See Deutsch, Albert (1944). Military Psychiatry: The Civil War, 1861–1865, in One Hundred Years of American Psychiatry, Pp. 367384 (see Pp. 373–377). Edited by Hall, J. K. et al. Columbia University Press: New York.Google Scholar

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70 In 1867 Hammond was appointed professor of nervous and mental diseases at the Bellevue Hospital Medical School in New York.

71 Surgeon General, U.S. Army, Report (Nov. 10, 1862) for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1862, cited by Deutsch, p. 373.

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75 For the conditions that prevailed in camps see Maxwell, W. Q. (1956). Lincoln's Fifth Wheel. The Political History of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, pp. 4849. Longmans, Green: New York.Google Scholar