Talk:Sehnsucht

Uncited: Sehnsucht = compound of "Sehnen" and "Sichtum"
As native German speaker I have to say: Sehnsucht is a compound of "Sehnen" and "Sucht". Futhermore, even the English Wikitionary (cf. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sehnsucht) entry tells us that (see Etymology). The German entry (cf. https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sehnsucht) for Sehnsucht tells us that it derives from the medieval German (Middle High German) "sensuht" which would describe a tantalizing, painful illness. So... any comments on that? --Jfilw (talk) 12:52, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

At the bottom I complained about the lack of a translation of "Sehn." From Wiktionary sehnen verb

reflexiv: den starken Wunsch haben, dass jemand oder etwas da ist sehnen → long;

sehnen verb

to wait, to aspire long; → sehnen; to want strongly crave; → sehnen; to have or indulge inordinate desire covet; → sehnen; to long for sufferingly pine; → sehnen; 2601:644:8480:24A1:55A3:E118:9A04:961A (talk) 01:44, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Too much C.S. Lewis?
Isn't this article a bit too Lewis-heavy? Lewis may be a great writer, and may have said fine things about Sehnsucht, but this seems somewhat out of proportion. Might this be a case of something akin to undue weight? Goochelaar (talk) 20:27, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Somebody has replied on my talk page claiming, among some not-exactly-subtle remarks, that Lewis would be the only writer to have written at length about Sehnsucht. If this is the case, I hope someone will be able to source this claim. Otherwise, I am going to reduce significantly the section about Lewis. Goochelaar  (talk) 22:52, 12 September 2011 (UTC)
 * We don't need to source the claim that that Lewis is the only writer to have covered Sehnsucht, that's like trying to prove a negative: instead, we would demonstrate that statement is false by simply finding someone else who has written about Sehnsucht. As it is, I personally have not been able to find anyone else who has discussed it at length, so the focus given to Lewis is seemingly appropriate. Basically, if you want to trim his sections from the article, *you* need to provide evidence that someone else has written about Sehnsucht, not the other way around. SheepNotGoats (talk) 21:00, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
 * All you need to do is go to the German language version of this very page and you'll plenty of other people who use the term. But they write in German. Which is unsurprising. It is a German word.Timjim7 (talk) 03:32, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

The focus of CS Lewis's viewpoint strikes me as example of bias in favour of Lewis and Christianity. If nobody can find somebody else who spoke about sehnsucht, at least find somebody criticising CS Lewis's view that this longing was 1) universal and 2) a longing for God. Yes, that would be example of somebody talking about sehnsucht in reference to Lewis (rather than a completely different view of sehnsucht), but it counts as an alternative viewpoint. So far this article is only presenting Lewis' Christian view of sehnsucht. There must be someone out there who opposed his view. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.64.150.224 (talk) 14:32, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Removal of Lewis section
I have removed the Lewis section for the followng policy-based reasons:


 * The section used only primary sources;
 * The section quoted from those sources well past the amount which is reasonable under our NFCC policy, or even under the less restrictive American fair-use provisions;
 * The section contained analysis and interpretation which was not supported by citations from secondary sources;
 * The language of the section was unencyclopedic and it read like a personal essay.

The section should not be restored unless all of these problems are adaquately addressed. Beyond My Ken (talk) 16:07, 5 February 2012 (UTC)


 * "It is sometimes felt as a longing for a far-off country, but not a particular earthly land which we can identify. Furthermore there is something in the experience which suggests this far-off country is very familiar and indicative of what we might otherwise call "home". In this sense it is a type of nostalgia, in the original sense of that word. At other times it may seem as a longing for a someone or even a something. But the majority of people who experience it are not conscious of what or who the longed for object may be, and the longing is of such profundity and intensity that the subject may immediately be only aware of the emotion itself and not cognizant that there is a something longed for." is lifted almost verbatim taken from C.S. Lewis' work and in the current article's form it is no longer clearly attributed to him. This needs to be fixed. 116.48.6.208 (talk) 04:46, 9 February 2015 (UTC)


 * So, fix it. BMK (talk) 05:15, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

German article
Why not expanding this article with some information of the german article?! The facts about suffering, Platon's idea, the german idealism etc. I find very interesting and enlightening.. (first time here) Xantakis (talk) 01:10, 17 April 2012 (UTC)xantakis
 * There's no reason you cannot do that yourself - this is "the encyclpedia that anyone can edit." Give it a try! Beyond My Ken (talk) 01:22, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Heimat II
The German TV miniseries Heimat II has sehnsucht as one of its key themes, perhaps the central theme. All the major characters, young people at university in Munich in the early 1960s, seem to have it to a greater or lesser degree. One of the characters, Juan, a Chilean, speaks specifically of sehnsucht to other characters in at least one of the episodes. I'm not sure how to turn that into a Wikipedia section though or what references to supply. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.147.212.160 (talk) 21:08, 16 June 2012 (UTC)
 * To add this information to the article you will need a citation from a reliable source which describes the characters as exhibiting sehnseucht. Putting it in without such support would be original research, since it would be your interpretation of the characters.  (Unless, of course, the characters go around saying "I feel so sehnsucht today.") Beyond My Ken (talk) 01:46, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Wagner.
Surely someone (me perhaps) should mention something of Wagner in this context? Indeed and if Wagner then surely Schopenhauer. Nigel 93.97.133.254 (talk) 14:13, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

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Mixing apples and oranges
In the section called "In psychology," how on earth can "unattainable, utopian states" be compared with a lack of importance "to everyday life"? Is the writer trying to say that Germans spend more time dreaming about bliss than Americans? It didn't seem that way to me when I lived and worked there. The sentence mixes apples and ... something else. Could someone who understands it (I'm a native English speaker) please rewrite it? There's also no translation of Sehn, which I will try to find.2601:644:8480:24A1:8D9F:CDF:FFED:E28D (talk) 01:33, 8 April 2017 (UTC)

Adequate translation
People are too eager to conclude that words are impossible to adequately translate into English. "Schadenfreude" is the most famous example. That noun can be translated perfectly with the English verb "to gloat". "Sehnsucht" is another. It simply translates to "wistfulness". Harphylangous (talk) 02:25, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

Hauntology in the see also section
What are your thoughts on adding Hauntology to the see also section of this article? I believe it is a related topic.

Cleanup
I've removed a bunch of stuff from the lead and popular culture section. I'm also unsure as to what the psychology stuff is doing in an article about the German word. Maybe merge it with peak experience or something and then afd this? Isa (talk) 13:42, 30 March 2018 (UTC)