"How Does Psychoanalysis Heal?" is Kohut's last book, completed shortly before his death in 1981. In this work, Kohut presents a coherent account of his psychology of the self, which he initially formulated in "Narcissism: A Theory of Psychoanalytic Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorders" and further developed in "The Restoration of the Self." Kohut views the concepts he developed as an expansion of the understanding made possible by psychoanalysis, the significance of which may one day be compared to the discovery of central perspective in painting and architecture in the general consciousness. According to Kohut, healing relies much more on a sufficient structuring of the self from the fundamental drives of an intrinsic core self, which realizes its ideals through its skills and abilities.