THE PURPOSE of this study, as its title implies, is to examine certain
connections between the Freudian psychology and Thorstein Veblen's
social theory, but frames of reference are indispensable before the
purpose can be more systematically stated and worked out.

Thorstein Veblen was a critic who claimed that much of economic
theory was based on inadequate psychological premises. His own
"institutional" contributions were given an underpinning of psycho-
logical theory notably different from that found in other economic
doctrines, such as classical and marginal utility theory. Theories in
social science usually do contain or involve some psychological com-
ponents if not a developed psychological scheme. If these components
are inadequate or actually incorrect, it is important to note this, and
likewise important to remark how psychological components in-
fluence the remainder of a theoretical structure.

The reference to the remainder of a theoretical structure may be
clarified. Thus, Veblen tells us that the two dominant modern in-
stitutions are the machine process and investment for a profit. ^i. The
machine process is to be broadly understood as the whole of modern
technology, with the problems that it presents to the purposes and
spirit of business enterprise. Investment for a profit is similarly to be
understood in its relations to the machine process. There is presented
an institutional framework not reducible to psychological terms or
components. Yet at the same time as he operated with this framework,
Veblen made additional psychological assumptions that he thought
relevant to it. Other economic theories could recognize the same
institutional framework and yet operate with different psychological
assumptions. Institutional components in a theory, in the way of
views or premises about social or economic structure are, in principle,
distinct from psychological components. This is an unavoidable