Solastalgia

Over the last couple of years, have you heard yourself or others ask, “When is life going to get back to ‘normal?” Or, “Why can’t things just be like they used to be?” Do you feel anxious or concerned about what the ‘new normal’ might bring?
 
There’s a word for this feeling or sensation: solastalgia. This word was coined in 2003 by Glenn Albrecht, an environmental philosopher and professor of sustainability and environmental studies in Australia. The word solastalgia is a combination of Latin solacium (comfort, solace) and the Greek root algia (pain, suffering, grief).
 
Solastalgia, as defined by Albrecht, is a form of psychic or existential distress (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical) that people experience when the world around them is being transformed by forces beyond their control. People respond to such distress in many ways: fear or anger, despair or denial; or, perhaps, even by finding ways to work together in order to take responsibility for responding to such changes.
 
Robert Macfarlane states, “Where the pain of nostalgia arises from moving away, the pain of solastalgia arises from staying put. Where the pain of nostalgia can be mitigated by return, the pain of solastalgia tends to be irreversible … solastalgia speaks of how a familiar place is rendered unrecognizable by climate change or corporate action” (Macfarlane, 317).
 
In brief, solastalgia is the sense of loss of solace and comfort within your home environment. In contrast, nostalgia is the homesickness felt when you are away from your home environment.
 
What about the origins of nostalgia? That’s another story.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
Robert Macfarlane. (2019). Underland: A deep time journey. London: Penguin.
TEDxSydney - Glenn Albrecht - Environment Change, Distress & Human Emotion: Solastalgia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solastalgia
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/climate-change-home-solastalgia-1.6871522
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