The 5 Differences Between Melancholy And Nostalgia
It is common for concepts that arise in the world of research to pass through our everyday language, into the realm of popular culture (that is, outside the realm of science), undergoing changes that we often overlook. This happens, for example, with melancholy and nostalgia, two terms that are often confused and although they present some similarities in the way they make us feel, they are not the same.
Therefore, in this article We will see what the differences are between melancholy and nostalgia briefly explaining its characteristics as a psychological phenomenon.
Psychological processes are always complicated phenomena to understand, especially when they occur mainly “behind closed doors”, that is, without being reflected in actions that we carry out through movements and that others can observe. When we add to this that these are very abstract thoughts or feelings full of nuances, the degree of complexity increases even more, and therefore it is easy to fall into inaccuracies and confuse terms referring to similar concepts. But that does not mean that it is impossible to know this part of human reality, investigate about it, and outline the keys to distinguish between concepts widely used in Psychology.
As I have anticipated, melancholy and nostalgia are often confused or directly treated as if these words were synonyms. This is no coincidence, since some of their characteristics overlap; Hence, it is not always easy to differentiate between both things when we feel a certain way or when we see that someone around us could be experiencing that. What do they have in common? Above all, four things:
From what we have seen so far, it is clear that both nostalgia and melancholy are processes that involve very abstract thoughts, that is, they do not depend directly on a specific type of stimulus, but rather arise from a combination of psychological processes. varied; Therefore, it is difficult to draw the line between the one and the other, since there is no single way to feel melancholic or nostalgic, and even these experiences can change over time in the same person. Therefore, the definitions of those words that you will find here are only an approximate way to understand what each thing is about.
nostalgia is a feeling based on a temporary longing to experience an aspect of our past that we associate with well-being or happiness. It is characterized by generating a bittersweet feeling, since, on the one hand, we would like to return to that past and we feel that we cannot, but on the other, remembering it through memory can be satisfactory.
For its part, melancholy is a state of mind linked to a feeling of sadness that can even constitute a depressive-type symptom , and which is associated with the experience of loss in general and very abstract terms. In general, this concept has always been part of the field of mental health, and although in the past it was part of the category of psychotic disorders, especially delusions (the fact of having totally irrational or meaningless beliefs) , starting in the 20th century, it began to be written as a mood alteration closely related to major depression.
How to differentiate between nostalgia and melancholy?
Now that we have seen some summarized explanations about what melancholy and nostalgia are, let’s look at how they differ in a little more detail.
Nostalgia tends to direct our attention to quite specific elements of our past : for example, the beauty of our body during our youth, or the groups of friends we had years ago, etc. On the other hand, melancholy is less concrete in defining what we feel we have lost, and it usually generates a more existential feeling of loss, more detached from material aspects.
2. In nostalgia you long for something, and in melancholy, not always
This difference is an extension of the previous one. While In melancholy there is always a longing to recover something from the past In melancholy this does not always happen.
In fact, it may happen that the melancholic person feels that what he no longer has is something to aspire to, a meaning to give to his life, which can lead him to assume that he never really had that. This experience of not being able to see meaning in life is a way of questioning what we felt in the past and stopping valuing past happiness, and that means that we do not miss that previous stage of life. Furthermore, many people who suffer from melancholy blame their past “I” for being too deluded or innocent.
3. Melancholy has a more direct relationship with discomfort
As we saw before, both melancholy and nostalgia lead us to “participate” in their existence, delving again and again into the type of sensations and thoughts they generate in us. But that doesn’t mean we like it.
In the case of nostalgia, it can produce in us an experience in which satisfaction and sadness seem to mix together, which is difficult to understand and contributes to us not being clear about what is happening in our minds. Precisely for this reason, when we feel nostalgic we can feel a certain comfort while longing for something, since, in a certain way, we feel well-being by transporting those memories to our present (for example, by playing a type of music that we associate with our adolescence, we can have a good time while missing those years).
Instead, In melancholy there is rarely room for well-being , and in fact, it is part of the set of psychological phenomena linked to the symptoms of major depression. Therefore, although melancholy is also an experience supported by abstract thoughts, this mixture of positive and negative affects does not occur in it, but that does not mean that it “captures” our attention, leading us to constantly reinforce these types of feelings and images. emotionally painful mental thoughts, as if we wanted to self-sabotage or punish ourselves (this is very typical of all mood disorders in general).
4. Nostalgia does not always lead us to a low mood
As we have seen, the way in which nostalgia and melancholy lead us to focus on the past is different. Therefore, another of the key differences between the two is that nostalgia can even become a motivating element to carry out complex activities or long-term projects (for example, collecting antiques, repairing and restoring old cars…), while melancholy leads us to a state of passivity and disinterest in what surrounds us, leaving us in a state of introspection and little activity in general.
5. Its duration is different
While nostalgia tends to be a passing experience, melancholy has a greater capacity to last over time ; hence it is part of the symptoms of major depression, a psychopathology characterized by its persistence.
