The real reason many Americans are cutting ties with their parents and siblings

Estrangement is rarely caused by childhood abuse or a pushy therapist. Instead, it reveals a collision between two ideas of what family should be.

The path to estrangement is usually gradual, marked by mounting tensions and unresolved conflicts. Nick Lehr/The Conversation via ChatGPT Luna, 26, no longer speaks to her father. There was no single betrayal, no dramatic rupture. What ended the relationship was his insistence on obedience and dominance. “In his head