It's Not Just In Your Head #149: Nostalgia (ft. Grafton Tanner)
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Aug 15, 2023 In this engaging conversation, Grafton Tanner, a writer and professor, delves into the complexities of nostalgia as outlined in his book, *The Hours Have Lost Their Clock*. He describes nostalgia as a reaction to modern traumas, linking it to environmental grief and fabricated memories. The discussion touches on how nostalgia shapes identity and is weaponized politically, as well as its role in entertainment like sitcoms. Tanner also warns of the dangers of selective memory and encourages a proactive approach to shaping our futures.
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Help Clients Find Their Authentic Past
- Therapists should help clients rediscover authentic experiences rather than survival stories they adopted to cope.
- Harriet Fradd urges finding what things truly meant to you, not the idealised narrative you were taught.
Institutions Try To Prescribe Collective Memory
- Institutional nostalgia prescribes what people should yearn for and fights alternative historical narratives.
- Tanner ties curriculum battles and attacks on critical race theory to attempts to fix collective memory.
Name And Resist Weaponized Nostalgia
- Learn to identify when nostalgia is being weaponized in political or media contexts and name it clearly.
- Tanner recommends spotting nostalgic framing to resist manipulation and understand who benefits.
