Google Doodle Celebrates Sigmund Freud’s Birthday

He would have turned 160 today

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Austrian doctor, and father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who developed a clinical method for treating mental issues.

Born on May 6, 1856, Freud revolutionized the way we understand the mind, although his approach has generally been abandoned by psychiatrists.

Freud famously held sexuality to be at the root of most pathologies of the human brain, placing much emphasis on the Oedipus complex. He also developed the idea of the subconscious mind, which Google picks up on for his birthday doodle.

“A dimpled leather couch might be the typical visual associated with Freud and other therapists, but Doodler Kevin Laughlin instead created this iceberg,” Google explains. “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.”