Theory: Iceberg Topographical Theory
Theorist: Sigmund Freud
Biography:
Sigmund Freud, the founder of “psychoanalysis” was born in Freiberg, Germany on May
6, 1856. He lived almost his entire life in Vienna, Austria, and died in London, England on
September 23, 1939. Frued was considered an imposing figure even though he was small in
stature. He was recognized as a gifted student who went on to study medicine in Vienna where
he received his doctorate at the age of 24. Not surprisingly, he completed a solo research project
at age 19, and had a scientific paper published at age 20. He married Martha Bernays and had
six children, one of whom, Anna, was recognized as a dedicated follower to her father’s pursuits.
(Encyclopedia of World Biography, 1998),
Freud, spent five months of his three year residency in the psychiatry department where
he observed patient symptomology in order to ascertain the organic brain disease and its effect
on the patients psychopathology. This orientation to neurology later gave him acclaim in
working with cerebral palsy, aphasia and other brain disorders. As his residency was winding
down he had applied and was awarded a grant to study neurology at the Salpetriere treatment
facility in Paris. During this four month training period he became exposed to using hypnosis for
the treatment of hysteria under neurologist Jean Martin Charcot, which upon his return to Vienna
was expounded upon by an older colleague Breuer. Freud and Breuer found that these
hysterical patients suffered from “pent up emotions” and “repressed” (Encyclopedia of World
Biography, 1998, p.3, para 3) thoughts that were not on the conscious level. As patients released
these inner thoughts they improved and were considered successfully treated. This breakthrough
led to a co-authored paper on Studies on Hysteria (1985). (Encyclopedia of World Biography,
1998),
Freud moved away from the treatment of hypnosis and adopted the widely accepted
practice of “free association”. Upon completing a series of studies on dream therapy, in 1901 he
wrote papers on the effect that the unconscious has on every aspect of human behavior, ranging
from memory slippage to “slips of the tongue” (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 1998, p.2,
para5). In 1905, he began studying his most controversial subject of the unconscious sexual
desires of children as they relate to conscious awareness and the impact they have on their
personality. In 1909, Freud was invited by the University of Worcester, Massachusetts to give
five lectures, which he saw was the first major recognition of accepting his theories in
psychoanalysis. (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 1998).
In 1923, Freud developed mouth cancer which he fought for 16 years and with over 30
surgeries. After the invasion of Germany into Austria, being a Jew, he and his family were
placed under house arrest. It was with the assistance of major world leaders that the German
authority released him and his family from occupied territory. Freud had a notable career and is
acclaimed for theories in the “the ego and the Id”, the Iceberg Theory, Nature vs. Nurture and is
of course the inspiration behind the term “a Freudian slip”. He died in London at the age of 82,
but his theories live on. (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 1998)
Description of Theory:
Freud was not the first person to write and discuss about the unconscious mind, but he
was the first to suggest that mental processes were largely unconscious (Rennison, 2001). Freud
uncovered this belief as he treated his patients suffering from hysteria and neurosis in the 1890s
(Rennison, 2001). During this time in the 1890s, Freud was developing and working with
different techniques to assist his patients in bringing repressed memories to the surface and
allowing them to reveal whatever was going on in their minds (Rennison, 2001). The
information and material that emerged from the sessions with his patients provided the
foundation for Freud’s ideas about the division between the conscious and unconscious
(Rennison, 2001).
Originally, Freud divided the structure of the mind into two parts, the conscious and the
unconscious (Rennison, 2001). Two decades later, Freud decided to revise his theory because he
viewed it to be too simple (Habicht, 2001). In Freud’s the Ego and the Id (1923) he extended his
structure to include three parts known as the id, the ego, and the superego (Habicht, 2001).
According to Freud, the oldest and most primitive part of the mind is the id (Rennison,
2001). We are born with our id. The id is full of selfish desires and impulses and requires
immediate gratification (Rennison, 2001). As newborns, the id allows us to get our basic needs
met. This is what Freud called the pleasure principle (Rennison, 2001). According to Freud, the
id wants whatever feels good at that time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation
(Rennision, 2001). Think of this as I want and I want it now. When a child is hungry, the id
wants food, so the child cries. When the child needs changed, the id cries, the child is changed.
When a child is in pain, or too hot, or too cold, or needs attention, the id speaks up until the
needs are met (Heffner, 2001). Freud states that the id is inseparable from the unconscious, the
id wants and desires in the now and does not make plans for the future (Thurschwell, 2000).
Freud describes the ego as the rational part of the mind (Rennison, 2001). The ego is the
part of the mind that reacts to the outside world and allows individuals to adapt to reality
(Rennison, 2001). Freud called this the reality principle. According to Freud, the ego
understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive,
selfish, or immediate can hurt us (Heffner, 2001). It is the ego’s job to meet the needs of the id,
all the while taking into consideration the reality of the surrounding situation (Heffner, 2001).
Freud states that the ego provides individuals with a sense of self and watches over the
instinctual demands of the id, deciding how, when, or whether the demands can be met and
gratified (Rennison, 2001). An analogy that Freud used to describe the relationship between the
id and the ego compared the two with a relationship between a horse and its rider (Rennison,
2001). According to Freud, on occasion, a horse will slip from it rider’s control, just as the
instinctual demands of the id will slip from the ego, but for the majority, the horse is guided and
controlled by the rider (Rennison, 2001). Freud’s idea of the id and ego work like this, the id
says ‘I want’, the ego tells it to wait; the id says ‘go for it’, the ego says ‘protect yourself,
survival is more important than instant gratification’ (Thurschwell, 2000).
The third component of Freud’s model is called the super-ego (Rennison, 2001). The
super-ego is the voice of our conscience. It voices what is right and wrong, and forces us to
behave in ways that are accepted in society instead of us acting on our individual urges all the
time (Rennison, 2001).
Freud’s Topographical Model, or Iceberg Theory, represents his thoughts of the
configuration of the human mind. According to Freud, there are three levels of consciousness:
conscious, preconscious, and unconscious (Neill, 2004).
Level one is a very small part of consciousness, which is conscious (Neill, 2004).
Consciousness can be defined as an awareness of self and your surroundings. You have an
awareness of your external environment, you know what is going on around you (objects,
actions, sounds, smells) in your environment, you are completely aware. You are mentally
aware of what is going on around. You can physically see people, hear people, you are aware
that you are breathing, and you are aware of your own thoughts and feelings. According to
Freud, this is the part of your mind that holds what you are aware of. You can talk about it and
think about it logically (Neill, 2004).
The second level is a small to medium level, your preconscious. Your preconscious
holds information and thoughts which are unconscious at this particular time, but are not
repressed and can easily be called and put into conscious thought (Neill, 2004). It is considered
ordinary memory (Neill, 2004). For example, your telephone number, your address and any
other bit of information that you are not currently thinking about, but which you can easily recall
and put into conscious thought.
The third level is considered the largest level, your unconscious. Freud believed that the
unconscious part of the mind was not directly accessible to awareness (Neill, 2004). Freud
believed that this is where we dump all of our urges, feelings, and ideas that are related to
anxiety, conflict, or pain of individuals. Freud believed that these thoughts and feelings have not
disappeared from the individual, they are still there, and hold a strong influence on our individual
actions and conscious awareness. Freud stated this is where most of the work of the Id, Ego, and
Superego take place (Neill, 2004).
According to Freud, material can easily pass back and forth between the conscious and
the preconscious and material from these two areas can also slip into unconscious. Freud states
that truly unconscious material cannot be voluntarily made available; it can only be reached
through a psychoanalyst (Neill, 2004).
An Iceberg Metaphor is used to help in the understanding of Freud’s Topographical
Theory. According to Freud, only ten percent of the iceberg is visible which contains your
conscious. The other ninety percent is below water, containing your preconscious and your
unconscious. Out of the ninety percent below water, your preconscious is allotted ten percent of
the space, where the unconscious is allotted eighty percent (Neill, 2004).
Because the unconscious is so large, this theory has been linked to an iceberg where the
majority of is under the water’s surface. The water represents everything that we are not aware
of or have not experienced. Freud believed that the majority of what we experience is not at the
conscious level, but at the unconscious. The Theory model is shown in Figure 1 (Neill, 2004).
Theory Measurements and Instrumentations:
Freud’s practice of psychoanalysis was intended to bring the repressed feelings and
thoughts of the patient into the conscious level; basically to make the unconscious condition a
conscious one. Freud developed the practice of free association in which he would sit out of site
behind the patient as the patient talked freely and uninterrupted for an extended period of time.
Freud would take notes and piece together what he believed were aspects of the patients
unconscious. He would also use a guided word association, providing the patient with words and
asking them to give the first thing that came to mind (Mcleod, 2007). Dream analysis was
another technique used by Freud. He would find themes and hidden meaning in patient’s dreams
(Heffner, 2001).
The Rorschach Inkblot Test was developed by Hermann Rorschach in 1921. This
projective test consists of ten white cards with inkblots which are printed in either black or color.
The patient is asked to use free association to describe what they see in each inkblot. The test is
designed to unlock the unconscious mind (Heffner, 2001).
Henry Murray developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). This test is a picture
interpretation technique. The test consists of several cards with black and white and grayscale
pictures which are somewhat ambiguous and lack emotion. The patient is asked to tell a story
based on their interpretation of the picture. This is another technique used to bring a patient’s
unconscious thoughts to the surface (Heffner, 2001).
These types of projective tests have been widely criticized for a variety of reasons.
Lilienfeld, Wood, and Garb listed several reasons these assessments are highly controversial.
Projective tests often:
1. Can be susceptible to faking and situational influences
2. Are routinely used in situations where they are poorly supported by
research
3. Utilize scoring that can be unreliable
4. Use norms which are often non-existent or poor
5. May be biased against North American minority groups and individuals
living outside of North America (Lilienfeld, 2000, p. 57).
Another reason projective tests are not widely accepted is related to the U.S. Supreme
Court decision of 1993. This decision referred to as the Daubert criteria, which set forth the
standard of the admissibility of scientific evidence in federal courts and also became the standard
for many state courts. The ruling recommends that courts accept as scientific evidence
assessments and techniques that can be empirically tested and peer reviewed. The majority of
projective assessments and techniques do not meet the Duabert criteria (Lilienfeld, 2000).
Report Prepared by: Frankie Adair, Jason Marrujo, and Gary Ross
References:
Habicht, M. (2001). The mind and the unconscious--a modification of freud's agencies.
Unpublished manuscript, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
Heffner, C. (2001, April 01). Allpsych online. Retrieved from
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/index.html
Lilienfeld, S.O., Wood, J.M., & Garb, H.N., (2000), The scientific status of projective
techniques, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 1(27-66), doi: 10.1111/15291006.002
Mcleod, S. A. (2007). Simply psychology; Psychoanalysis | Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html
Neill, J. (2003, September 22). Topography of mind: freud's iceberg model for unconscious, preconscious, and conscious. Retrieved from http://wilderdom.com/personality/L83TopographyMindIceberg.html
Rennison, N. (2001). Sigmund freud. (p. 96). Harpenden, England: Pocket Essentials.
"Sigmund Freud". Encyclopdia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography In
Context. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.
Thurschwell, P. (2000). Sigmund freud. (p. 158). Taylor and Francis Routledge.
FREUDS’S VIEW OF THE HUMAN MIND: THE MENTAL ICEBERG
Figure 1. GIF image of Freud’s view of the human mind: the mental iceberg.