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We might remark here in passing that the child, like the criminal, learns what punishment to expect for any given misdeed.  This amount of punishment he is often prepared to accept without holding a grudge.  But if he is punished ten dollars’ worth for a one-dollar crime, he feels nine dollars’ worth of resentment, since, inexperienced though he is, he nevertheless realizes somehow that he is being made a scapegoat for someone else’s sins and resents this unfairness.

A Layman’s Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, Eric Berne, page 15