Nostalgia and Melancholy Through the Lens of Science

Abstract

The text explores some aspects of the history of nostalgic and melancholic feelings, along with the definitions left by psychiatry for mental pathologies. The period analyzed primarily focuses on the industrial societies of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, when there was an increase in medical attention to a series of disorders – whose names include “nervous diseases”, “neurasthenia”, “melancholia”, and “lipemania”. Examples from Portuguese psychiatry will be highlighted, as well as the old connection between melancholia and saudade. The general premise of the text is that the impacts of human activity on the planet intensify feelings of loss of temporal and spatial references. Thus, the Anthropocene era would be closely related to the fostering of nostalgic feelings.