Nostalgia Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis

The aim of this one-day workshop is to explore the intersection between phenomenology and psychoanalysis via the theme of nostalgia. While there has been a modest but steady pool of research on nostalgia from a phenomenological perspective, the relationship between psychoanalysis—especially within the context of Freud—and nostalgia remains more ambiguous. In the work of Freud himself, the term “nostalgia” appears only once and even then, only in passing in The Interpretation of Dreams. The passing mention to nostalgia is all the more striking given Freud’s concern with the archaeology of meaning, the function of fixation, and the different modalities of memory conceived in his work. This workshop proceeds from the point of view that the theme of nostalgia provides an opportunity for dialogue between phenomenology and psychoanalysis. In particular, the workshop posits that nostalgia can provide a space of possible encounter between phenomenology and psychoanalysis across several key themes and questions. This workshop invites contributors to reflect on the place of nostalgia between phenomenology and psychoanalysis across a series of themes and critical questions:

Temporality: what is the temporality of nostalgia?

Affectivity: what is the affective status of nostalgia and how can we think of the emotion outside of the binary between disease and well-being? What role do other emotions such as anxiety, melancholia, and shame play in the formation of nostalgia as a mood? What exactly is the affective tonality of nostalgia and what role can Freud’s notion of the uncanny play here?

Subjectivity: what role does nostalgia play in generating an impression of unity (or otherwise disclosing the fragmented foundations upon which subjectivity is grounded)?

Unconsciousness: what role do unconscious mechanisms play in nostalgic desire?

Intentionality: what is it that we are nostalgic for?