Lex Talionis (an eye for an eye) as early justice in the face of terror

Many scholars and practitioners have asserted that the breakthroughs in the Code of Hammurabi and in the Hebrew Bible and the Koran of retaliatory vengeance--an eye for an eye, but only one eye--was a triumph of justice in the face of terror.  Retaliation or Lex Talionis (in Latin), the law of the Talio or one-for-one retaliation, stopped endless cycles of retaliation and blood feud.  Yet, this mode of punishment, of responding to terror rand wrong, has been repudiated in many places today.  Gandhi's statement that, "with an eye for an eye, the whole world is blind," is designed to mae people stop before retaliating at all.  But, if they cannot stop, is a one-for-one retaliation better than a blood feud that goes on for generations?  Is there something in Gandhi's statement that ignores human psychology?