{"id":7292,"date":"2026-04-22T04:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/draculascastle.com\/wordpress\/?p=7292"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:22:43","slug":"is-family-loyalty-a-thing-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/draculascastle.com\/wordpress\/?p=7292","title":{"rendered":"Is Family Loyalty a Thing of the Past?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/lifetime-connections\/202508\/is-family-loyalty-a-thing-of-the-past<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Growing up, many of us may have learned the importance of sticking up for family members or bringing pride to the family name. Regardless of what you might actually think about a family member, many of us were taught to keep those opinions to ourselves, especially outside the home. If you bucked the system, you might find yourself being disciplined or ostracized within the family. Today, individuals no longer feel compelled to maintain allegiance to their families of origin or extended family when they feel that their best interests are not served by these relationships. Whether it\u2019s considered family estrangement or alienation, it is a double-edged sword. One side of the sword acts as a force of liberation, and the other side can do lethal emotional damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estrangement vs. Alienation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When someone chooses to cut off contact with others, they may engage in estrangement or active alienation. While these two words are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings and connotations. If a family member has estranged themselves from you, that generally means that they no longer communicate or interact with you. Alienation is more about an active effort to keep someone out of another\u2019s life. For instance, grandparent alienation describes what happens when a person\u2019s adult child ensures that their own child is kept away from the grandparents and may involve brainwashing the child against the grandparent. Estrangement is a backing off from a relationship, while alienation is actively manipulating people or circumstances to prevent interaction and communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is Estrangement Becoming the New Normal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Times have changed, and the stigma<\/a> that once kept people from cutting<\/a> off contact with family members has diminished across society and even disappeared in many cases. This can be liberating for those individuals who suffered any form of abuse in their homes growing up; however, there are growing numbers of people who did not suffer any identifiable abuse but choose to break all ties with one or more family members for other reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around five years ago, a poll conducted by a Cornell University sociologist Karl Pillemer<\/a> indicated that about a quarter of adults were estranged from a close family member. A year ago, a Harris poll<\/a> revealed that about half of adults surveyed admitted that they were estranged from a close family member or former friend. Not only does the target of estrangement experience emotional pain, but collateral damage can also affect others in the periphery, too. Grandparent alienation is an example of a cut-off in which multiple generations can suffer. Cousins, aunts and uncles, great grandparents, and so on can all experience some level of loss as the family dynamics shift to accommodate the absence of some of its members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In trying to understand the reasons behind family estrangement, some of the possible reasons stretch from the personal to the political to the historical and the geographical, and places in between. Here\u2019s a partial list of potential causes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n