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Heinz Kohut rejected the determinism of classical psychoanalytic thought which tended to neglect the uniqueness of human experience. Whether being a parent, therapist, or researcher, the key to his theory was empathetic immersion into the individual human experience. This empathetic immersion, understanding the introspection of the other was where the true self could be discovered. It was where Kohut defined the self as a sense of having an independent center of initiative and perception, integrated ambitions and ideals and an experience of the unity of the body and mind.