A sociologically trained social psychologist engaged in theoretical and clinical work in psychoanalysis is likely on occasion to be asked by his sociologist colleagues to account for what sometimes appears to them to be an eccentric, if not slightly suspect, preoccupation on the part of a sociologist and to explain how he manages (or fails) to reconcile two paradigms that are often regarded as unrelated or even antithetical. Recently, for example, I was asked by a colleague to speak to her class on the topic of “the relevance of Freud for students of social theory.” On reflection, it occurred to me that her manner of formulating the topic could be regarded as an expression of a degree of skepticism regarding the thesis I was expected to defend—a skepticism that may well be representative of the attitude of many sociologists toward psychoanalysis. By way of comparison, it is rather unlikely that anyone would be asked to speak on the relevance of Marx or Weber for students of social theory, for