"For many of us, nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. It is defined as the longing or sentimental feelings we have about our past. These can include our childhood home, our first car, our favorite vacation, or graduating from college with friends. We all feel nostalgic sometimes, and most of us have gone back to a place we had nostalgia for at one time or another in our lives."
"However, for a person higher in a covert narcissistic personality structure, revisiting the past can be used as a psychological tool in order to relive a time in their lives where they felt powerful, adored, or exceptional. In this dynamic, nostalgia is not expressed as a way of re-experiencing connection or belongingness with someone, but is used for reinstating an ideal self- image, for agentic references and reflections on self-agency."
Nostalgia commonly produces longing for past experiences, objects, and relationships such as childhood homes, first cars, vacations, or graduations. Most people use nostalgic memories to find comfort, shared connection, and belonging. For individuals with covert narcissistic personality traits, nostalgia functions differently: it becomes a psychological tool to relive moments of power, adoration, or exceptional status. Such individuals revisit memories, achievements, routines, or places to stabilize a fragile ego and momentarily inhabit an idealized self-image. Returning to familiar routines or objects cannot truly restore that idealized identity, because external reminders only temporarily soothe, not permanently repair, fragile selfhood.
Read at Psychology Today
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