This is a place where you’ll be able to read more about sibling estrangement, and its effects on us.
These short articles will serve in various ways to inform, empower, and break the stigma associated to the all too common experience of sibling estrangement.
Remember, you are not alone.
When Hurt Becomes Certainty: Understanding Psychological Rigidity in Sibling Estrangement
A friend pointed out to me that she chooses not to hold grudges. Asking her why, she said to me that it takes an inordinate amount of energy in doing so. This got me thinking about how we differ from our sibling-s when it comes to fluidity versus rigidity in patterns in thinking. And how…
When Rejection Doesn’t End With Your Sibling
Once we go through the experience of sibling estrangement, we are forever changed. It starts to affect us not only in how we see ourselves, but in our relationships with others as well. The feeling of rejection that we may have experienced from our sibling is a hurtful feeling that can carry into other relationships.…
Empathetic Approaches to Sibling Estrangement: Reclaim Your Identity
In our quest to understand the underpinnings of sibling estrangement, there is an increasing risk for those who are empathic, which is who most of us are. That risk is to stay too long with a hopeless situation in our bid to understand. Here, we will talk more about what that looks like, and how…
Emotional Capacity and Sibling Estrangement
One of the most freeing aspects that comes with our deliverance from sibling estrangement is when we start to recognize that our sibling can’t meet us at our level of depth, signaling their lack of emotional capacity. This particular deficit is an important factor to consider when it comes to the wedge that exists between…
Incompleteness and Sibling Estrangement
One of the most common themes that arises whenever we reflect on sibling estrangement is the ongoing feeling and experience of incompleteness. We are often left without answers, and for many of us, in our attempt to seek more certainty, this can mean dwelling into overthinking and rumination. In this article, we’ll explore just how…
The Impact of Turning Away and Against in Sibling Relationships
People sometimes approach me wanting reconciliation with their siblings. They share how they are encouraged by what they see, and hope that it can be maintained over time. What they see, are likely what are called “Turning towards” behaviors. In this article, we’ll discuss what exactly these look like, how their absence can damage the…
Emotionally Immature Parents and Sibling Estrangement
Learning the underpinnings of sibling estrangement is a multi-factored experience. It can require us to learn more about the psychology of defense mechanisms, biases, and attachment styles, just to name a few. Another important factor to consider is the emotional maturity of parents. In this article, we’ll explore the ideas of Lindsay C. Gibson’s book…
How Ambiguity Affects Sibling Connections
All sorts of defense mechanisms arise when we speak of how our sibling relates to us in different social contexts with them. One that is seldom discussed, but tends to happen to some of us is what’s called ambiguity. As we’ll come to see, ambiguity can be a power play that our sibling may further…
Mature Defense Mechanisms and Sibling Estrangement
In my last article, I talked about ego defense mechanisms, and how these can play out with siblings that exhibit these primitive and neurotic strategies. As we’ve seen, these are unhealthy expressions of the ego, which leave us hurt or bewildered. Here, we’ll be looking at what mature defense mechanisms can look like, and how…
Understanding Sibling Estrangement: Ego Defense Mechanisms Explained
In our quest to understand the underpinnings of sibling estrangement, one particular perspective is almost universally experienced, and it’s that of our sibling’s ego defense mechanisms. These were initially described by Sigmund Freud, and later, his daughter Anna Freud expanded upon them. Many of us have been subjected to disproportionate reactions on our sibling’s part,…
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Sibling Estrangement 