It is postulated that, when the punitive superego arises by splitting of the ego during inter-personal conflicts in early life, this is the result of direct anger towards the self for actively maintaining the situation of danger; and that it is because this process incidentally extricates the child from the external battle that it persists as a specific mechanism of defence.

Such a concept differs, both in essence and in its implications, from one in which the superego is formed primarily by identification with parent figures (though such identification undoubtedly follows); and even from that of aggression turned back upon the self. The superego is also considered to be fundamentally distinct from the persecuting internal objects of Kleinian theory, fear of which, however, may be regarded as instigating its development.