Summarizing his new outlook on the superego the author states that two distinct methods of scientific observation can be compared, yielding two separate conceptions of psychic life: (1) from the subjective angle—i.e. the world of subjective meanings and ethical values; (2) from the objective angle—i.e. in terms of behaviour as a dialectical series of adaptations.

The author concludes that guilt and prohibition are the primordinal facts which obviate the necessity for the 'absurdity' 'the unconscious sense of guilt'. The term superego can be abandoned and replaced by a particular arrangement of the ego as a unique entity, engaged in adaptation to inhibitions and prohibitions throughout the developmental process.