We frequently refer to homesickness as just “missing home” or feeling a little alone. However, homesickness is described as a particular distress reaction brought on by real or imagined separation from one’s primary environment in traditional psychological literature (Fisher, 1989; Van Tilburg et al., 1996).
According to Fullilove’s (1996) application of Bowlby’s Attachment Theory to spatial contexts, homesickness results from the sudden disruption of our established “place attachments” and cultural anchor points. It is more than just a feeling; it appears as:
Constant, bothersome thoughts about familiar spatial, sensory, or social environments are known as cognitive preoccupation.
A brief lack of agency or familiarity in a foreign, unfamiliar setting is known as spatial disorientation.
More notably, cultural analyst Svetlana Boym (2001) splits nostalgia down into two categories:
Restorative Nostalgia: The longing to physically repair or return to the lost home.
Reflective Nostalgia: A meditative, creative engagement with distance, memory, and spatial longing.
For my project, I am focused on introspective nostalgia. Rather than trying to “fix” homesickness by literally sending individuals back, my interventions aim to provide a space where participants can reflect on their relationship with home using sensory cues.
References
- Boym, S. (2001). The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books.
- Fisher, S. (1989). Homesickness, Cognition, and Health. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Fullilove, M. T. (1996). Psychiatric implications of displacement: Contributions from the psychology of place. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153(12), 1516-1523.
- Van Tilburg, M. A., Vingerhoets, A. J., & Van Heck, G. L. (1996). Homesickness: A review of the literature. Psychological Medicine, 26(5), 899-912.
Leave a Reply