This article examines the manner in which social structural & cultural variables will tend to cause one or another unconscious factor to be dominant or to determine differences in rates & form of suicide between groups or within groups. Specifically, it is suggested that it is the complex interrelationship between child-rearing patterns, adult role expectations, & social structural demands that these unconscious needs & their later re-elicitation occur. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate these arguments. (17 refs.)