ABSTRACT
Being rejected by family, or deciding to leave, can be one of the most traumatic experiences in a person’s life. While many people experience estrangement from family members, this is rarely discussed in the social and policy context or prioritised in family research. Stories of estrangement are increasingly reported in the media, particularly when the estrangement story has a tragic, celebrity or newsworthy element. In the domestic sphere, estrangement self-help groups and forums are rapidly forming online to meet a demand for support that seems unaddressed by human services. However, these sources are not often positioned to represent the multiple perspectives inherent in estrangement. Instead, adult children are maligned for estranging an older parent, or parents shamed for casting out a child, and other relationship types, such as sibling to sibling, are usually overlooked altogether. A balanced perspective about the causes and experiences of estrangement is hard to find. In fact, some people who have joined estrangement forums have reported being vilified for offering a different perspective, as if being estranged again by the people purporting to support them.
