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Gill and Klein state that a basic motif in Rapaport's work was in reconciling strict determinism with a personal belief that man plays a role in shaping his destiny. He found the solution in the principle wise men have always known, that freedom is the acceptance of the restraints of law. He formulated that reconciliation and modulation between drive and reality results in the formation of new psychical structure which, to some extent, is then able to function autonomously. In this Rapaport accepted the broadened conception of the synthesizing and adaptive capacities of the ego as laid down especially by Hartmann and, until interrupted by his untimely death, was utilizing it toward a general theory of leaning that took deep exception to most current theories. In contrast to modern structural theory, much of which he accepted and contributed to, Rapaport felt that a revival of Freud's concept of consciousness was necessary. He argued that there are varieties of states of consciousness that are structures of control resulting in the formation of other structures or higher states of consciousness. He was primarily interested in hypotheses that could be subjected to experiment.