# Nostalgia - a product of Si?



## Homraigar (Jul 29, 2011)

Nostalgia - that yearning for something from the past, triggered by something experienced in the present. 

It sounds rather closely linked to Si, the function that links past and present more than any other by comparing present sensory input to the stored database. Apparently tertiary Si gives INPs a propensity for nostalgia, or so some description said. 


But is there more to it than that - other origins? Does nostalgia happen to all personality types? Might Se users experience nostalgic feelings in different ways to Si?


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## Pizal (Jul 8, 2011)

I don't think so. Nostalgia can come from the way something makes you feel so it can very well be a product of N albeit focusing on different aspects. 
I think the what you are describing seems like a thing that nostalgia and Si both do, but that doesn't make them the same thing. A bike and a plane can both get me to New York, but they aren't the same thing. I get very nostalgic at times and Si is my inferior function, but I can definitely see Ne triggering nostalgia just as well as a sensing function. I would be more general and say that nostalgia is perceiving based than judging based.


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## ukinfj (Apr 15, 2011)

I had thought this myself, as I don't really get nostalgic except when I'm very unhappy and start to wonder if things were better a few years ago,maybe I should just go back to how it was then....etc....then someone tells me I've remembered the events so horrifically incorrectly (often my memories are about 90 per cent imagination and I've forgotten almost everything about the actual time) that I usually sort of give up. So I get nostalgic, but only if I'm very, very unhappy. Otherwise, I never think of the past at all and, oddly, nothing ever reminds me of it!

So I had wondered myself yes, whether it could be Si. I remember splitting up with boyfriend when I was younger and, feeling in a ridiculously heart broken mood, I placed the small gifts he had given me in a velvet bag and vowed to never throw them away so that whenever I got them out I could feel him (or whatever) - basically, this was something I'd seen on TV and in books and something at the time I was sure I wanted. Next time I'm upset I go to the bag, expecting to feel this close bond to the ex - actually, it was just a load of stuff. I didn't feel anything at all. Mostly I was thinking "this stuff's kind of shit". 

I thought I'd share that because I've always thought of it as my Si-wannabe phase. I don't do nostalgia even when I want to.

So yeah....I'm open to it being a cognitive function thing.


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## allisreal (Mar 23, 2010)

Yes I do think it is a result Si. As an INFP I can get very nostalgic...I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other functions played an interactive role. Fi for instance can strongly value events that had taken place in the past. Ne might be trying to connect events of the past to events of the present.



ukinfj said:


> I had thought this myself, as I don't really get nostalgic except when I'm very unhappy and start to wonder if things were better a few years ago,maybe I should just go back to how it was then....etc....then someone tells me I've remembered the events so horrifically incorrectly (often my memories are about 90 per cent imagination and I've forgotten almost everything about the actual time) that I usually sort of give up. So I get nostalgic, but only if I'm very, very unhappy. Otherwise, I never think of the past at all and, oddly, nothing ever reminds me of it!


This exactly how one of my INFJ friends describes his memory of the past!

On the site infjorinfp.com the author Vicky Jo has a section called Tertiary talk. I was amazed at how accurately it described me as an INFP with respect to my tertiary function Si and my friend with respect to his tertiary function Ti. She also describes the presence of Si in an INFJ. Here are some quotes:

"INFPs are often well rooted in the past, with a good memory of things that have happened historically, and are attracted to "collecting" facts. They sometimes have a strong grasp of family and tradition and may have a great deal of familiarity with their family tree or display an interest in genealogy. They may act as the "family historian" at times, knowing who begat whom and how a particular branch is related. They have long memories. I know one INFP who could recite from memory what year of childhood he first spoke or began walking, including details about what hairstyles he wore at different stages of life! Others like to visit the same places frequently, and let their minds drift back in time to recall previous visits. Nostalgia is often engaged, and they enjoy telling stories from their past. (Introverted Sensing is a cultural norm in the U.S., so it seems fairly "typical" to look to the past this way.) One INFP tells how he enjoys his routines, his habits, doing things by rote. He does the everyday chores of maintaining his home, and these keep him in his comfort zone. Similarly, sometimes INFPs will stay at the same job for years because they're used to it -- even when the job stinks. (A friend of mine stayed at a dreadful job for 9 years!) INFPs sometimes display "body wisdom," and their bodies can be barometers for how they are feeling, whether through illness, food allergies, or headaches. They are often given to taking medications to control their physical being in some fashion. (On a Yahoo Group one time when there was a discussion of medications, it was a veritable drugstore! It seemed every one of them was popping pills to control something.) These are all common ways that Si will manifest in the INFP type code."

"INFJs, on the other hand, are drawn to categorizing. They display a knack for systematizing and can do it quickly. They typically define terms, or ask others to define theirs. They expend a great deal of effort finding precisely the right word to express what they want to say, sometimes rewriting emails many times over until they are succinct, hopefully pithy, and all the words seem exactly right (like not saying "invoke" when you mean "evoke" or "conscience" when you really mean "conscious" or "wretch" when you mean "retch"). They often behave like English teachers, and frequently get asked to proofread others' writing for errors. They can be highly sensitive to misspellings or it's/its mistakes on public signage. They strive for clarity and precision, and often contribute these gifts to a conversation. They attempt to articulate things unspoken, and name aloud any problem or peculiar dynamic. They may enjoy methods of organizing, such as the systematic "Color Me Beautiful" approach to fashion-dressing, or database designing, and of course, Personality Types. Some of them are professional organizers or financial planners thanks to their tertiary. It is the INFJ who will relentlessly re-take a personality test to grasp the categories better in order to figure out which category they really belong to, and become irritated if the results change each time. The INFJ cares more than the INFP does about people being "mis-filed" with the wrong type code, and I know an INFJ who got disgusted when her Step II inaccurately reported her as an INTJ. They are unwilling to settle for INFx (I confess: that designation makes me crazy). These are common ways that Ti will manifest in the INFJ type code."

"In comparison, INFJs tend to possess the memory of a sieve when it comes to their personal history. (I repeat, this is not about memory per se; it's about a frame of reference to the past. Everybody claims to have a bad memory.) Now, I can barely recollect what I did yesterday, much less something I did as a child. When somebody asks, "How have you been?" or "What have you been up to lately?" my mind goes blank, even if I just got back from a trip (I did!). My childhood memories are so vague that I once wondered whether I had been badly harmed as a child, since that is often a symptom of abuse. My ISTJ sister recalls lots more than me about my own childhood, or related facts. (Trust me, she would know all the details about any abuse.) Similarly, I lack interest in genealogy. I attended a family reunion one summer, and I was really impatient with figuring out how I was related to anybody there. Whenever my mother starts reciting "begats," I nearly pass out. When she tries to "catch me up" on news about a high school classmate, I usually don't know who she's talking about and could care less. I'm far more comfortable telling you how I'm *going* to be tomorrow, next week, or next month than I am telling you how I was yesterday (really!). When I re-connect with somebody and they want to reminisce at length about the "good old days," my heart sinks and I want to escape. I became a coach rather than a therapist because I couldn't stand the idea of hearing about people's childhoods and past histories all the time. (Virginia Satir called such conversations a "trip through the museum.") Because Si is in the 8th position for INFJs, they can get downright "devilish" when they're asked to reference past events for extended periods of time. And don't ask me how oppressed I feel when somebody tries to control me with rules! Airport security alone nearly makes me hyperventilate. Worse, anything that looks like a routine or a habit has me running the other direction -- I don't even like taking a daily vitamin, and heaven help me if a doctor puts me on a medication of any kind. I've never been able to brush my teeth regularly -- or do anything else "regularly," for that matter. And I mean nothing! Both my husband and I keep an extremely erratic schedule, and we also steer clear of day-to-day chores. Whenever we try to pack for a trip, it's a nightmare because we can never find where something got put away from the last trip (it probably didn't!). For that matter, I can't even stand going to the same job everyday -- I never worked at one job long enough to qualify for a paid vacation. However, I did love the novelty of being a temp and going to new offices all the time and meeting new people. Two weeks at the same job is just about right for me, and then I start craving something new."


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## Up and Away (Mar 5, 2011)

Nostalgia usually refers to past events or places, therefore Si. But yea, if it refers to just a "sentiment" that is not concrete, despite that people might describe Si that way, simply put, something not concrete means it is abstract, and therefore Ni. Of course, what do you mean by "having nostalgia." There is a difference between having a feeling, and what we are focusing on.

Having a feeling really isnt even a function at all. Do you mean focusing on the feeling? Well, how are you focusing on it is the question 

A separate point that I actually wrote before the above:

The yearning from an absense of Se, is not usually referred to as nostalgia, 

but we can apply a general term: a void state of mind that needs filled, a sense of incompletion, to any of the functions.

Yeah, most people use all the functions to some degree, since we obviously all have introverted and extroverted sides, and all are obviously not completely abstract, concrete, logical, or sentimental. The E/I is not married to the other letters lol. They don't always switch perfectly together, and sometimes they ride the middle.


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