Notes

This book gives general information about an everyday habit of mind. It isn't medical advice or bereavement counselling, and it's no substitute for a GP or a counsellor who knows you. The services I mention are for the UK as I found them in September 2026.

I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 9, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 22, 25 and 26. The photograph on the fridge, the summer of nineteen ninety-six, the dinner table, the diary and the Tuesday in twenty thirty-six are invented.

Before you start. The two-week guide for low mood is from the NHS pages on depression and on grief, as verified for this and earlier books in the series.

Chapter 3. Walker, Skowronski and Thompson, "Life is pleasant, and memory helps to keep it that way!", Review of General Psychology 7, 2003, pages 203 to 210. A review. The comparison of a cooled past with a hot present is my way of putting their finding.

Chapter 4. Levine, "Reconstructing memory for emotions", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 126, 1997, pages 165 to 177. One study of one political event, with 227 supporters at the first wave and 147 at the second. The chapter's wider claim about memory as reconstruction is the general view in the field, and Levine's is the study I'm resting on.

Chapter 5. Eibach, Libby and Gilovich, "When change in the self is mistaken for change in the world", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84, 2003, pages 917 to 931. Survey and experimental data. The instrument test is mine.

Chapter 6. Mastroianni and Gilbert, "The illusion of moral decline", Nature 618, 2023, pages 782 to 789. Archival and original data on around 12.5 million people in at least 60 nations over at least 70 years. The mechanism is the authors' proposal and the chapter says so. The years 1955 and 2015 are illustrative of the span and not figures from the paper.

Chapter 7. Protzko and Schooler, "Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking", Science Advances 5, 2019, eaav5916. Five preregistered studies of 3,458 American adults. The two mechanisms are the authors' proposal.

Chapter 8. Mastroianni and Gilbert as above. The table test is mine.

Chapter 11. Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt and Routledge, "Nostalgia: content, triggers, functions", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91, 2006, pages 975 to 993. Seven studies. Routledge, Arndt, Wildschut, Sedikides, Hart, Juhl, Vingerhoets and Schlotz, "The past makes the present meaningful: nostalgia as an existential resource", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101, 2011, pages 638 to 652. Six studies. The distinction between a visit and living there is mine and the studies don't draw it.

Chapter 13. The NHS page on grief, bereavement and loss, fetched in September 2026, names Cruse Bereavement Support among sources of further support and gives the two-week guide for seeing a GP.

Chapter 15. Walker and colleagues, and Wildschut and colleagues, as above.

Chapter 16. Blanchflower and Oswald, "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?", Social Science and Medicine 66, 2008, pages 1733 to 1749. Around 500,000 people in the main data, with further analyses in 72 nations and in mental health measures. The U-shape has been disputed by later researchers on method and on which countries show it, and the chapter says "on average" and "held loosely" for that reason.

Chapter 18. Mastroianni and Gilbert, and Wildschut and colleagues, as above. The rest is mine.

Chapter 21. Wildschut and colleagues as above. The method is mine.

Chapter 23. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.

Chapter 24. The NHS grief and depression pages as above. No claim is made about the effectiveness of any bereavement service.