The Affectionate, Ambiguous, and Surprisingly Ambivalent Relationship Between Siblings

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For most people, their siblings will be the longest-lasting relationships of their lives, potentially enduring all the way from birth until past the death of their parents. Marked by both jealousy and conflict and love and loyalty, siblings are also some of our most complicated relationships. While a little over half of people describe their relationships with their siblings as positive, about one-fifth classify them as negative, and a quarter say their feelings about their siblings are decidedly mixed. Here to take us on a tour of the complex landscape of sibling-dom is Geoffrey Greif, a professor of social work and the co-author of the bookAdult Sibling Relationships. Today on the show, Geoffrey shares how our brothers and sisters shape us and how our relationship with our siblings changes as we move from childhood to old age. We discuss how the perception of parental favoritism affects the closeness of siblings and how a parent's relationship with their own siblings affects the relationship between their children. Geoffrey explains how most sibling relationships are marked by the three A's — affection, ambiguity, and/or ambivalence — and how the relationship can also become very distant or outright severed. We end our conversation with Geoffrey's advice on developing a good relationship between your children and reconnecting with your own siblings.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bratmicae here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:11.0	For most people, their siblings will be the longest lasting relationships of their lives,
0:15.7	potentially enduring all the way from birth until past the death of their parents.
0:19.7	Marked by both jealousy and conflict and love and loyalty, siblings are also some of
0:23.5	our most complicated relationships.
0:25.6	While little over half of people describe their relationships with their siblings as positive,
0:29.6	about one fifth classified as negative, and a quarter say their feelings about their
0:33.3	siblings are decidedly mixed.
0:35.6	Here to take us on a tour of the complex landscape of sibling them is Jeffrey Grief, a professor
0:40.5	of social work and the author of the book, Adult Siblings.
0:43.5	To end the show, Jeffrey shares how our brothers and sisters shape us and how our relationship
0:47.7	with their siblings changes as we move from childhood to old age.
0:51.2	We discuss how the perception of parental favoritism affects the closeness of siblings and
0:55.3	how a parents relationship with their own siblings affects the relationship between their
0:58.8	children.
0:59.8	Jeffrey explains how most sibling relationships are marked by the three A's, affection,
1:03.9	ambiguity, and or ambivalence, and how the relationship can also become very distant
1:08.2	or outright severed.
1:09.5	We enter conversation with Jeffrey's advice on developing a good relationship between
1:12.4	your children and reconnecting with your own siblings.
1:14.9	After the show is over, check out our show notes at a-wim.islash-siblings.
1:34.2	All right, Jeffrey Grief, welcome back to the show.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Art of Manliness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Art of Manliness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.