Manifestations of a punitive superego

The superego retaliatory actions can be understood as unresolved conflicts at the oedipal and oral levels of development. At the oedipal level, the law of talion rules the superego organization. At the oral stage, matricidal wishes stimulate a punitive mother introject which requires compensation. In both cases, however, the superego is the internalized maternal imago whose severity is as harsh as the mother's introjected mother.