Some months ago, Octavio Pitaluga Neto, Chairman at Top Executives Net, posted an interesting question on the Linkedin Q&A forum, with regard to the feeling of misplacement.

"[The more] we have become  global citizens", Octavio explains,"in this melting pot of knowledge, experiences, contacts and places we have lived in, the more this feeling [of misplacement tends to] grow inside. Sometimes, it´s just about  (a) geography: country or just city specific, (b) line of business/industry, (c) position, or even a combination of these 3 points and many others."

A 60-odd answers to Ocatovio's musings were posted. Here is a copy of mine:

Hello Octavio

The perception of being misplaced is a direct opposite of the sense (or should I say: the knowledge) of *belonging*.
In this regard, feeling misplaced is a symptom of a sustained *longing to be* (someone else, somewhere else, anything else, ...). In German, this particular emotion is called "Heimweh" or "Schweitzer Krankheit".
I love both words, since they both express the essence of what the phenomenon really is: both "Weh" (suffering) and "Krankheit" (illness).
About this illness being particularly Swiss (=Schweitzer), I am happy to claim complete innocence on the matter and I propose to leave this to our German connections to decide.

Although it is well known that every human being posesses a natural tendency towards wanting to be someone or somewhere else, it is only when we achieve a lasting transformation from *longing te be* to *belonging* that we will be able to flourish as an individual, and hence to really mean something for the other and for society at large.
In order to achieve hapiness and fulfilment, I believe that everybody has the task to get rid of her Heimweh as soon and as thoroughly as possible.
Fortunatley, this isn't as difficult as it might seem to be at first sight.

I believe that you are correct in your identification of 3 keystones in this process:
(1) With regard to geography, the realisation of "being a global citizen" is a main liberating factor. Every kind of nationalism or regionalism, where one longs to belong to a closely guarded and restricted area, is by itself linked to the demarcation of frontiers, borders, limits. These borders do not only limit one's geographical space: they have a limiting influence on one's mind as well. Hence "Heimweh" is so closely interconnected to nationalism, and nationalism to several kinds of "Krankheit" and violence.
How lucky we are to live in a time where the sense of being global citizens is so easy to come by. Think only of Linkedin, and you have your first tool to cure your sense of geographical misplacement.
(2) With respect to one's occupation or line of business as a "mind limiting experience", we are lucky again. In recent decades our professional environment has steadily been moving from being based on degrees and years of experience to focusing on one's skills and competences. This means that we are no longer necessarily stuck in the profession we chose initially. It suffices to develop our skills along the way, and we are all at liberty to make any career change we might want.
(3) This leaves "position" as a third factor. I believe this one to be closely connected to the second (already discussed). When position comes at play, most people will think of status (pride), and hence salary. Again, fortunately, in our modern world, there is a huge tendency towards the appropriation of status and salary rather to the one being competent and delivering results than to the one who just happens to be the owner of an impressive business card denomination or some awesome list of degrees.

And now my confession. I used to be a victm of some weak form of the "longing-to-be-virus" myself. I am an expert by experience. And it wasn't until I decided to get cured that I got cured.
At that point, the sense of liberation was all the greater.

Conclusion: Don't let it be long before you belong!
But then again (and take this as some mind-enticing Buddhist-like advice): If one longs too much to not long to be but belong, one might just keep longing to belong and longing to be!

Again, it was great sharing ideas with you!
Stay connected!

Francis Laleman