In his 2020 book “Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them”, Karl Pillemar surveyed 1,340 Americans aged 18 and over, asking them the question: “Do you have any family members from whom you are currently estranged?” He discovered that more than a quarter of Americans surveyed, or 27 per cent, reported being estranged from a family member – a parent, grandparent, sibling, child, and so on. Extrapolated to the US adult population, that amounts to some 67 million people who are estranged from a family member. Pillemar found that ten per cent are estranged from a parent or child and eight per cent are no longer talking to a sibling. Some in the media are calling it a ‘silent epidemic’ of family break-ups.
Know Thyself 