The Iceberg Theory in Psychology: what it is and how it describes the mind

The iceberg theory was raised by Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, in it he presents the simile between the structure of the iceberg and the elements of his first topic.

And what is the first topic? It is one of the most recognized models in the psychoanalyst current; it describes the structures of the mind according to Freud: the unconscious, the preconscious and the conscious. The iceberg theory will say that the visible part (above the waterline) of the ice structure represents the conscious part of the psyche. of the individual, the one that knows and is accessible, and that the submerged part of the iceberg is equivalent to the unconscious, associated with the illogical part and linked to the drives.

In this article we will see what the iceberg theory in Psychology consists of, the two principles that act as its foundations, and what has been its role in the History of Psychology.

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What is the Iceberg Theory in Psychology?

The iceberg theory in the field of Psychology was raised by the well-known neurologist Sigmund Freud, who is the father of psychoanalysis. Despite the criticism that his theory has received due to lack of scientific evidence, his ideas continue to be taught and studied in the Psychology career as part of its History. Regarding the theory that concerns us, the author uses the structure of an iceberg

to represent the first topic of it, also known as a topographic model.

In this first topic he talks about the conscious, which refers to the relationship that exists between the outside world and the memory system. (memory), the preconscious, which contains information that does not reach consciousness, but which is easily accessible, and the unconscious, which refers to the most illogical part linked to the drives, which are the forces that would move the individual towards a target.

With the purpose that people can better understand each term that forms the topographic model, in the field of psychoanalysis, the figure of the iceberg began to be used as a visual support. If we think about how we find these structures in the sea, it is characteristic that from the outside we only see a small piece of the real size of these figures. The expression “it is only the tip of the iceberg” is well known, which implies that a phenomenon is only the part that we know of a much more complex reality: there really is much more information that we are not yet aware of.

Well, Freud would argue that the visible part of the iceberg, the tip, refers to conscious knowledge, and the hidden part, the one that we do not see and is covered by water, is the unconscious. For his part, the preconscious would be the middle ground, the part of the iceberg structure closest to the surface, which is more likely to end up out of the water, but we still can't see easily. In this way, Freud would tell us that it is necessary to know the three psychic structures and that, therefore, it is essential to try to reach the unconscious.

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Principles that govern the iceberg theory

The iceberg theory and the different structures already proposed depend on two principles: psychic determinism and the Freudian unconscious.

psychic determinism

One of the principles that governs Freud's iceberg theory is psychic determinism. The author affirms that nothing that happens is arbitrary, every action and behavior has a force or a cause behind it that explains its appearance.. We will always find an antecedent that acts as a driver of behavior. Thus, it will be necessary to know what the cause or reason for certain events is, since in this way we will be able to treat the different problems or alterations that arise.

This relationship between cause and effect, according to Freud, we would see in all actions, such as: play sports because you like it, drink water because you are thirsty or go to bed because you are tired and want to sleep. We see how most of the time we are aware of the cause behind the behavior, even though we do it automatically.

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The Freudian Unconscious

The Freudian unconscious is linked to the illogical, timeless part, close to the drives, being the structure that receives more importance and more studies in the psychoanalysis proposed by Freud. Despite being related to knowledge that we are not aware of, it is what explains a large part of our behaviors, especially those related to alterations.

The unconscious is governed by the primary processes linked to the pleasure principle, where energy circulates freely and tends to satisfy itself without hindrance. Now, with the purpose of controlling the unconscious, there are censorships, which have the function of controlling the free circulation of energy.

In this way, Freud will propose different modes of intervention in therapy and different techniques aimed at knowing the information of the unconscious, which as we see in the representation of the iceberg refers to the part of the largest structure, the part submerged. Reaching the knowledge of the unconscious, the subject could know the reason for his behavior and treat the possible affectations or alterations that are hidden in it.

in the unconscious thoughts, sensations, emotions, or experiences that cause us problems or affect us are stored if they appear in the conscious. That is, we keep them out of consciousness in order to function better in our daily lives. Thus we can react to different events and situations in a way that we do not understand, since it is determined and is caused by the unconscious.

A typical example of the information contained in the unconscious is that referring to dreams.. Freud affirms that desires are unleashed in dreams and it is the best way to know our unconscious. Such is the importance that he attached to it that he published a book entitled "The Interpretation of Dreams." Other examples of the manifestation of the unconscious are the failed acts related to forgetfulness that occur in our day to day, such as the name of someone or the neurotic symptoms that in this case were linked to pathology.

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The application of the Iceberg Theory in therapy

As we already know, the metaphor of the iceberg represents the first topic of the models proposed by Freud, but at the same time we can also link it with the second topic or structural model. This second topic proposes the division of the subject into the "it" (it refers to the unconscious and is linked to sexual and aggressive impulses), the "super-ego" (it refers to the moral and ethics of the subject, marks what is right and what we should do, the ideal self), and the "I" (refers to the interaction between impulses and expectations, that is, between the "it" and the “super-ego”).

For Freud, the correct functioning of the human mind depends on the balance that exists between the different psychic structures. When the "I" is not able to control and balance the differences, between what is desired and what is correct, between the principle of pleasure, linked to the free circulation of energy and the principle of necessity, more rational and logical, the problems. That is, this imbalance would be the cause of the development of psychopathology.

So that, the conflict arises as the opposition between conscious and unconscious, such as the need to reduce the tension generated by the basic instinctive impulses. In this way, the symptoms that appear are due to a formation of compromise between the drives, mentioned, and the defenses, generated by the "I" to achieve the balance between the different structures.

This compromise formation refers to the unconscious's attempts to get repressed contents through to the conscious, thus increasing the sanction generated by the superego and with it the increase in the sensation of discomfort and suffering.

Also, what this iceberg theory presents us with is the continuous influence of the unconscious exerted on the behavior that the subject performs. The psychic determinism that hides the influence of the unconscious and that explains a large part of our behavior. What Freud wanted to express with this representation that can be illustrated with an iceberg is that we cannot remain alone with what we know about our behavior, since that is a small percentage, a small portion, of what is really part of each subject.

As we have already said, we cannot directly access the unconscious, it expresses itself in different ways such as: through sleep, forgetfulness or omissions, among others. Despite the difficulty of access, there would be some techniques that psychoanalysis applies to get to the unconscious and knowing and treating the cause of the pathology, these are governed by 5 basic rules.

The rules of psychoanalysis are: the basic rule that proposes that we should not carry out any type of censorship, nor criticize anything that comes to mind; the rule of free association, referring to relating different contents as they arise in our minds; the rule of floating attention to be able to reach the unconscious (we must remain attentive to everything without specifying anything); the rule of neutrality of the analyst (the psychologist cannot judge anything the patient says); and the rule of abstinence (desires cannot be allowed to act either on the part of the patient or on the part of the therapist).