Researchers share the titles they recommend most often.
When parents estranged from their children share what’s going on, many imagine other people thinking, “What’s wrong with you?” said Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University.
Though estrangement — or family cutoff — can feel isolating, it’s actually fairly common. A 2022 YouGov poll of Americans found that 29 percent of subjects were estranged from a parent, grandparent, sibling or child.
People experiencing estrangement often crave tools to deal with the loss and assurance that they aren’t alone — and a number of recent books may help make sense of what they’re going through.
We asked nine experts who research the topic for recommendations. Because the field is still growing, many of them endorsed the same books. And several experts interviewed for this article appear on this list because their work was highly recommended by colleagues.
The five titles below offer guidance on navigating family rifts, coping with pain and finding a path forward. But they won’t necessarily help mend broken ties.
As Kathleen Smith, a therapist and faculty member at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, D.C., put it, “the goal is not to prevent estrangement or encourage it, but to help a person get their best thinking involved in the decision.”
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
