You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This is a psychosociological dissertation from Columbia University. Psychoanalysis and the psychologies of the 'neo-Freudians' (Kardiner, Horney, Sullivan, Fromm, Dalbiez and others) are described. Veblen's
explicit or implicit postulates about human nature are examined, and many of his hypotheses about modern industrial society and about Germany are considered in the light of 'the freudian psychology'.
Perhaps the most useful formulation is the concept of 'structural irrationalities', which is intended to supplement Karl Mannheim's 'substantive rationality' and 'functional rationalization'. By substantive rationality Mannheim meant 'an act of thought which reveals intelligent insight into the interrelations of events in a given situation'. Functional rationalization refers to a systematized set of actions by which a goal may be accomplished, though only a few persons have a comprehensive view of the interrelations of the whole. Schneider suggests that both kinds of rationality may be present in a society in the service of goals which are incompatible 'as goals'; hence the concept of 'structural irrationality', which refers to actual or potential conflicts of goal or purpose, fills a gap (p. 112).
As a whole Schneider's book does not give the impression of a complete synthesis. It is as though the author had been torn among several aims which, though they did not produce an irrational result, nevertheless betrayed their various presences in the structure of the presentation. Obviously the author wanted to write a systematic account of the interrelation of psychology and sociology; he was also interested in determining the degree of concordance among the newer clinical psychologies, and especially in applying them explicitly to social life. He was interested in Veblen, both as a social scientist making use of psychological postulates, and as a formulator of hypotheses about certain phenomena in the contemporary world. He was striving also to review existing k