estrangement /estrānj″mənt/ [L, extraneus, not belonging] , 1. a psychological effect of the separation of a mother from her newborn required when the infant is ill or premature or has a congenital defect, thereby diverting the mother from establishing a normal relationship with her child. 2. the feeling that external objects have a strange, unfamiliar, or unreal quality, caused by a failure of cathexis of the external ego boundary, one of whose functions is to identify external objects as real and familiar.
