When the agreement was announced, everyone believed that Steinbrenner's self-inflicted punishment was a tad severe.

In general, I'd say that what most snoopers find out constitutes their just and self-inflicted punishment.

The vow is a form of Hindu Tapa (or Tapasas), a self-inflicted corporal punishment intended to help bring spiritual enlightenment.

How can such self-inflicted punishment be justified?

That, I think, would be self-inflicted punishment rather than a reward to oneself for writing work well done.

'Is it a form of self-inflicted punishment, then?'

Han Soo had once told Marq that his physical neglect was deliberate, a self-inflicted punishment.

Or such self-inflicted punishment could mean mental unbalance "Oh, great!"

A faction within the church apparently dwelt on guilt and fear and attempted a daily routine of extreme asceticism and self-inflicted punishment.

For the college, the experience of developing and mounting the course has been a beneficial one, although at times it felt like self-inflicted punishment!