talion
n. retaliation, especially retaliation in kind, as in the biblical injunction “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The talion principle or law plays an important part in psychoanalytic theory, because it includes the general idea of retribution for defying the superego and the specific fear (talion dread) that all transgressions, accidental or intentional, will be punished in kind. For example, a person wishing consciously or unconsciously for the death of another person might suffer extreme anxiety caused by the fear that he himself or she herself is dying.