Google Doodle commemorates Sigmund Freud's 160th birth anniversary

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for his influential theories on psychiatry and psychology. Google has honoured the father of psychoanalysis with a Doodle on what would have been his 160th birth anniversary.

Today's doodle has been designed by artist Kevin Laughlin and depicts the Frued's most commendable theories - the iceberg theory. The theory explains the presence of unconscious, pre-conscious and conscious in a human mind and how they give birth to id, superego and ego which eventually shape a person's personality. The Google Doodle shows only a part of the psychologist's face above the surface of water to represent the conscious whereas the rest of it is shown as submerged and unknown, representing the pre-conscious and unconscious.

He was born on May 6, 1856 and changed the way world understood human behaviour forever. The idea that 'dreams' can mean anything and the presence of a subconscious mind, is a concept we owe to Sigmund Freud. Freud also introduced the method of resolving mental illness through a dialogue between a doctor and patient.

Explaining the idea behind the Doodle, Google says, "With a vast hidden base, the iceberg references the murky depths of the unconscious mind. More importantly, the design draws our eye to the horizon, reminding us how the genius of Freud's practice rests in the space between doctor and patient, reader and text, human and world."

The Freudian method of interpretation, i.e. looking for meaning beyond the surface of things and the usage of Freudian terms like "narcissism" "death wish" and "Oedipus complex" now extend to popular culture too. He has also authored books such as The Interpretation of Dreams, The Ego and the Id, Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Beyond the Pleasure Principle and many more.

Freud passed away in the 1939 at the age of 83 due to oral cancer.