In the beginning, “nostalgia” was a medical diagnosis.

My dictionary indicates the word was coined in 1668 by one Johannes Hofer. He built it from two Greek roots: nostos = homecoming and algia = pain, grief, distress (Greek study, by the way, is very handy for deciphering medical-speak. Algia always means pain (and analgesic relieves it), like itis just means inflammation of the indicated area, and oma is a signal for tumor).

Our “homesickness” was created by literally translating nostalgia to English.

It sounds like the issue that made nostalgia a noted disease was when a bunch of Swiss mercenaries, fighting in lowland France, began to fail in health. It appears their malady was more mental than physical, and the experts of the time concluded that it was caused by homesickness for their beloved mountains. (Can we revisit this? It’s easy for me to imagine a group of mercenaries who aren’t happy. They look depressed, confused, enraged, despairing and desperate. When asked what’s the problem, I’ll bet some of them just said “let me go home now.” Homesickness, huh? Isn’t it more likely to have been a form of what we now call PTSD?)

As far as I can tell, nostalgia was considered a serious medical condition for about 250 years. It wasn’t till 1920 that it was recorded with its modern meaning: wistful yearning for the past. Now we don’t find people who carry the nostalgia diagnosis, any more than we meet folks suffering from choler or other humors.

It’s time for a bit of rethinking, I’m thinking. Nostalgia may not require hospitalization, but it appears to be more destructive than wistful yearning. In my experience, nostalgia is the number one cognitive condition that guarantees inaccuracy. Nothing else so thoroughly recasts memories, embellishing good recollections and romanticizing bad ones.

I think I’m D.O.N.E. with it. That’s Down On Nostalgic Expression. Join me?