Homesickness

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Homesickness is the longing to be abroad, to be back home . Numerous works of art, songs and books from all centuries tell of the painful feeling of being far away from home. The word “homesickness” stands in the literal contrast to wanderlust , the longing for the distance.

term

The word “homesickness” can be found for the first time in Switzerland; the Swiss Idioticon cites a record from 1651 as the earliest mention. It was soon used in medical literature, but was initially limited to Switzerland. It was not until the Romantic era (19th century) that the term also found its way into other German-speaking countries.

sociology

Sociologically, homesickness is directed towards lost communities , especially during childhood. But homesickness also occurs in adulthood when the individual feels lonely ('in the big city', 'among lots of strangers' etc.) , especially in psychological crises. The loss of familiar surroundings is perceived as very painful; the person concerned seeks improvement by returning to his home, which is felt to be safe.

psychology

According to psychological reactance theory (J. W. Brehm, 1966), the individual tries to ward off the interference with his freedom by tending to view the alternatives that are not offered or not available as more attractive. This creates the pressure of suffering that can result in a mental illness. In particular, children who go on a multi-day trip for the first time and spend the night away from home can quickly become homesick.

Several behavioral approaches have proven to be effective for homesickness as an everyday psychological phenomenon. In particular, frequent social contacts and conscious attention to pleasant activities can reduce the mental space of stressful feelings and thoughts.

According to Reinhard Lay, homesickness is a painful longing that occurs outside of the home environment. The - mostly temporary - experience of loss can lead to crisis reflection and enable new growth and consolidation steps of the personality.

The Swiss disease

The clinical picture nostalgia ( Greek νόστος nóstos 'return' and άλγος álgos 'sadness', 'pain', 'suffering') was first described under this name in 1688 by the doctor Johannes Hofer in Basel . It is also known as the Swiss disease ( Latin helveticus morbus ).

It is a by unsatisfied longing for the homeland founded melancholy or monomania which a significant disruption of physical health, exhaustion, emaciation , fever has and even result in death. The name “Swiss disease” is based on the definition of Swiss soldiers stationed abroad who suffered from homesickness. The rumor spread in the 18th century that singing or whistling the cattle rows ( Chue-Reyen, French Ranz des Vaches ), a well-known shepherd's song, was forbidden in France under the death penalty , because the Swiss soldiers are not homesick when listening to it more could resist it and them to desertion verleite was by Jean-Jacques Rousseau picked up. The singing of the Guggisber link is said to have been forbidden to Swiss mercenaries.

The folk and soldier's song to Strasbourg on the Schanz / This is where my suffering began is related to homesickness.

Fiction and film

Homesickness is the theme of the stories The March Home by Wilhelm Raabe and Heidi by Johanna Spyri , followed by Theodor Fontane's ballad Archibald Douglas (1854). A poem by Mascha Kaleko is entitled Heimweh, what? ; Abbas Khider presents the poem in his book Deutsch für alle. The final textbook (2019) is advancing.

The 1943 film Heimweh with the film dog Lassie was very successful . This feeling is also at the center of the film Nostalghia (1983) by Andrei Tarkowski .

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Heimweh  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Homesickness  - Quotes
Wikibooks: On the psychology of homesickness  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schweizerisches Idiotikon Vol. XV Col. 42 f., Article Heimwē
  2. ↑ Karl Jaspers : Homesickness and Crime (= splinters. Vol. 21). Belleville-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-923646-61-5 , p. 31.
  3. ^ Help with homesickness , Psychologists Online, accessed on July 10, 2017.
  4. ↑ John Hoferus. Dissertatio medica de Nostalgia, or Heimwehe. Basel 1688
  5. ^ Christian Schmid: Homesickness. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  6. ↑ Urs Hostettler: Anderi Lieder. About the humble people, their legends and dreams, their misery and their revolts. Compiled and commented on by Urs Hostettler. Zytglogge, Bern 1979, p. 67.
  7. ↑ Matthias Slunitschek: Nostalgia or deserter destiny to Strasbourg on the Schanz, in: Yearbook of the German Volksliedarchiv 57/2012, pp 81-110.
  8. ^ Wilhelm Raabe : The march home in the Gutenberg-DE project