The social character which makes people act and think as they have to act and think from the standpoint of the proper functioning of their society is only one link between the social structure and ideas. The other link lies in the fact that each society determines which thoughts and feelings shall be permitted to arrive at the level of awareness and which have to remain unconscious. Just as there is a social character, there is also a „social unconscious.“ ― (1962a: Beyond the Chains of Illusion. My Encounter with Marx and Freud (Credo Perspectives, planned and edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen), New York (Simon and Schuster) 1962, p. 88.)
The concept of „social unconscious refers to that repression of inner reality which is common to large groups. (…) Naturally the contents of the social unconscious vary depending on the many forms of social structure: aggressiveness, rebelliousness, dependency, loneliness, unhappiness, boredom, to mention only a few. The repressed impulse must be kept in repression and replaced by ideologies which deny it or affirm its opposite. ― (1965c: The Application of Humanist Psychoanalysis to Marx’s Theory, in E. Fromm, Socialist Humanism. An International Symposium, edited by Erich Fromm, New York (Doubleday) 1965.)