Towards a psychopolitical approach to nostalgia

Whether through divisive injunctions to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), or the impassioned calls to “Take Back Control” that punctuated the Brexit campaign, nostalgia is a salient force in contemporary life. Yet, in psychology, nostalgia is increasingly celebrated as a predominantly positive, universally shared experience. We argue that this disconnect reflects a broader neoliberal pulse running through psychological research, one that frames certain affective phenomena as resources for individual optimization. In response, the current article argues for a psychopolitical understanding of nostalgia—one that foregrounds the entanglement of emotion, memory, and subjectivity within historical and institutional power relations. Through a historiographical overview and critical analysis of the psychological literature, we demonstrate how hegemonic forms of psychological science depoliticize nostalgia, and we call instead for epistemologically generative and ethically responsive theories and methods attuned to its ambivalent and culturally mediated character. We conclude by introducing two conceptual paths for future research, vicarious and speculative orientations to nostalgia, together with some methodological examples drawn from the interdisciplinary scholarship.