The Book of Jonah, unlike other parts of Biblical lore, appears to be the product of a single mind, according to various Biblical scholars. Psychoanalytic study corroborates this, and suggests that it is a story of a man's internal conflict, with regression, depression, and ultimate reintegration and strengthening of the ego. The Lord's command that Jonah warn Nineveh of threatened punishment for its wickedness is interpreted as anger against the mother. In flight from this conflict, Jonah seeks refuge in a ship bound elsewhere (mother symbol) but is thrown into the sea (union with mother) and swallowed by a whale (return to the womb). After oral rebirth he makes his peace with father (the Lord saves him by commanding the whale to vomit Jonah up onto dry land). The saving of Nineveh represents the renunciation of his wishes for mother and for her destruction. Suicidal impulses nevertheless appear. Jonah is a depressed and desolate man who has suffered a great loss, by inference the death of his wife. Recognition of the irrational nature of childhood wishes