15.55 3 Feb 2021
Karl Pillemer Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and Author of Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them joined Sean on the show.
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What are the effects of family estrangement?
Before knowing how to mend family estrangement, it would also be nice to know the effects of having family rifts.
According to Pillemer, family rifts can be devastating. Its consequences can create chronic stress for all of the family members. Later on, this type of stress can lead to depression and anxiety, or sometimes even physical health problems.
Also, there are instances when family members who have nothing to do with the rift become collateral damages.
How to mend family estrangement?
According to Pillemer, for most people who have experienced disagreeing with other family members that eventually led to a family rift, it is always better to call it a truce and to know how to mend family estrangement.
A survey by sociologist Karl Pillemer revealed that about 25% of people live with some kind of family estrangement. (Getty Images)
It s the holiday season, and even in a year where gatherings are small or perhaps remote, it s a time when many feel a yearning for family. It s also a time when family rifts, sometimes chasms, are felt most acutely.
Family ruptures are incredibly common. In fact, a survey by sociologist Karl Pillemer revealed that about 25% of people live with some kind of family estrangement, and those damaged relationships take a toll mentally and physically.
Through interviewing several hundred people on the topic, the “Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them” author discovered how universal that feeling is. “They felt it was a death, an open wound,” he says.
Listen • 9:34
A survey by sociologist Karl Pillemer revealed that about 25% of people live with some kind of family estrangement. (Getty Images)
It’s the holiday season, and even in a year where gatherings are small, or perhaps remote, it’s a time when many feel a yearning for family. It’s also a time when family rifts, sometimes chasms, are felt the most acutely.
Despite the anguish they cause, those family ruptures are incredibly common. In fact, a survey by sociologist
Karl Pillemer revealed that about 25% of people live with some kind of family estrangement, and those damaged relationships take a toll mentally and physically.
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Estrangement: Unaddressed, Just One Inevitable Final Chapter
No longer loving the other person is one thing experts and research indicate is not a cause.
If so, what are we to make of estranged family relationships?
And, extending the question, how do we process the death of an estranged family member?
First, the numbers.
In a 2015 study, Richard P. Conti of Kean University found that about 17 percent of respondents experienced estrangement from an immediate family member, most commonly from the father.