Abstract
Historically nostalgia was treated as a psychological disease. To be nostalgic was to be ill. Recent research has, however, demonstrated that nostalgia is not a psychological vulnerability but instead an important resource that helps people find meaning in life and regulate meaning-related distress. Specifically, nostalgia bolsters perceptions of meaning in life. In addition, experiences that threaten meaning trigger nostalgia and nostalgia mitigates the negative effects of meaning-related psychological threats. Nostalgia also serves as an intervention for those at risk of mental health problems associated with deficits in meaning: a nostalgia intervention disrupts the association between low meaning in life and psychological maladjustment. In all, nostalgia serves a critical existential function by offering people a way to derive meaning from personally cherished autobiographical experiences. Nostalgia also has implications for autobiographical-related clinical therapies.
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