It is often the case that no matter who hurts us in our lives, it is our families that have the ability to hurt or give us happiness more readily than that which we can imbibe and feel from other people. It is our families after all that know all our ‘buttons’ and press them without even thinking about it.
They say familiarity breeds contempt but it also creates our synaptic pathways; for it is as we grow up and it is with the people we grow up with that we lay down how we think. It is of course not pleasant for people who are taught they are free to believe they have a way of thinking, when that way has not been chosen but the more research done the more it appears to be the case. The reason seems to be that the emotional response of a child, and the social connectivity of a child, are laid down (unbelievably) before the age of three.
This is of course in the normal course of family events. Since this can hardly we called the most intellectual or rational period in a human life, it explains that much of the reaction to family is on a par with instinctive. A place where we react to habit, sounds, smells in such a way as they propel us to particular thoughts and actions.
Our families have a huge hold on our imagination.