QA188 QUESTION: In connection with blaming and punishing, is the punishing toward the self or towards the other?

ANSWER: It goes both ways. You cannot punish others without punishing yourself, and you cannot punish yourself without punishing others. Each case is different. It may vary, but when it starts, it is sometimes impossible to stop.

Usually, I would say, the childish, destructive part is infuriated when it does not get what it wants. And then one wants to punish the surroundings, the environment. One punishes them in all sorts of indirect ways, usually. These ways are probably completely covert. One punishes them by destroying one’s feelings, by secret hate, by secret maneuvers, perhaps; one even destroys oneself in order to punish.

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