Abstract
The crisis in man’s existence provoked by separation constitutes one of the salient problems in the social, psychological and behavioral sciences. Separation frequently results in marked changes of behavior. While the consequences of separation from affective reference objects, primarily as applying to individuals separated from their homeland, and children separated from their parents, have been investigated (the latter mostly by psychoanalysts), the reaction to separation in its superordinate aspect of change and fear of change, which I designate as nostalgic, has so far received no adequate attention.1
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References
That the interest in this phenomenon is considerable, was shown not only by the large number of scientific reviews and requests for reprints that resulted from my first works, but by the reaction of American and German news media (a. o. KRISTAL, 1961, 2, and DER SPIEGEL, 1964, 18) often with distorted, sensational emphasis.
Consult this work for a basic treatment and exhaustive literature on the subject.
When Marx (1927) calls religion “opium for the people” then does this mean that no open system, as I use this notion here, can develop on the basis of religion. (cp. also Lenin, 1965, and the depth-psychological analysis of religious endeavors by S. Freud, 1955).
The privileged classes can compensate these losses by “buying” social and affective relations (in a pseudo-sense).
cf. The notion “Sunday Neurosis”
In connection with subjective time-perception, attention should be drawn to the ultrarapid recapitulation of past experiences at a moment of catastrophe (flashback).
This “divine” model serves as legitimization for other rulers of the Christian-bourgeois microcosmos to lead their followers back into the paradise of their own making.
A beautiful example for the negative attitude of the Christian-bourgeois against his fellow man is an experiment reported by W. Johnson (1946). A test group of students was given a number of portrait photographs and asked to pierce the “eyes” with an icepick. This they accordingly did. But each one of the groups refused to follow the instructions on one particular photograph — that of his own mother (which the investigator had, at an earlier date, obtained from the students for a different purpose). They mutilated unthinkingly the “faces” of strangers, but they refused to do this to their “mother.”
Future research should concern itself more with politico-analytical studies in the area of exploitation and manipulation of the nostalgia phenomenon. It would be valuable, for instance, to study the propaganda aspects by which certain governments motivate individuals and groups to “emigrate” or “to flee” their country. How needs, conflicts, reactive depression and uprooting problems are being exploited to increase the imperialistic and aggressive potential of the host nation. (cf. Ciananni, P. “Emigration and Imperialismus,” Trikont 1967). A worthwhile objective would be the study of techniques applied by the Zionists movement to make Jewish citizens of various nations “nostalgic” for Israel — very similar to the “Heim ins Reich” movement of Adolf Hitler, — and follow-up studies of this forced (suggested) uprooting. (Certain mass media make believe that suddenly all Jewish citizens of the Soviet Union are dissatisfied with their lot and want to emigrate).
Since Hunter’s book became a bestseller, and the fabrications therein stimulators for the production of many social “scientists” and psycho-analysts, a few direct quotations may show its trend: “Another pushover for the indoctrinators [the Chinese] was the indecisive mind, especially the falsely academic kind that always sees some valid point in the other sides argument. One of the main reasons for the intensive preliminary questioning by the Reds was to locate just such individuals.” (p. 280) “A remarkable portion of the outstanding cases of mental survival was of men with a closed mind on communism … They knew that the Reds were telling them lies, and they knew, too, that when the Reds did tell them something truthful, it was for the purpose of harming them,” (p. 285) “A mature thinkers approach to communism is that it is evil, not partly evil but all evil.” (P. 287).
Slogans which I as a visiting professor of the University of California, delegated to Korea in 1953, heard repeatedly among US troops.
The Chinese conducted extensive courses in order to teach the US prisoners to read and write in their mother tongue.
In this connection it should be pointed out that “homesickness” figured already as a diagnostic category in the American Military psychiatry during World War II, and according to W. C. Menninger (1948) it was the most common minor maladjustment among US troops. (see also Lavin, 1953; Regnier, 1955; Wittson, et al 1943.) Co-editor’s remark: E. g. I, M. Pfister-Ammende
This censure imposed by the previous owners of the publishing company was lifted by the present owners.
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Zwingmann, C. (1973). The Nostalgic Phenomenon and its Exploitation. In: Uprooting and After.... Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95213-5_3
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