Tourette's Syndrome Discussion

[TUC]

Moderator note - split from:

Passenger removal

This afternoon I boarded an Avanti train at Penrith, to Carlisle. A few seats away was a Scottish gentleman who was making phone calls and his language was slightly “choice” if one knows what I mean, but not OTT. I’ve heard much worse! What happened prior to me boarding the train I don’t...

www.railforums.co.uk

What does Tourette's syndrome have to do with any of this? It seems like it was mentioned for no reason, and it very much is an edge-case. I think (hope) most railway staff would be able to see the signs/symptoms of Tourette's easily.

I think a key difference as I understand it is that people with Tourette's are more likely to say offensive words aloud at random moments, rather than in the middle of a conversation, but that swearing as symptom of it is rare-claiming Tourette's for swearing in a conversation is more likely to be someone without Tourette's using it as an excuse. See the NHS guide to Tourette's Syndrome at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tourette-syndrome/

The main symptom of Tourette syndrome is tics. Tics can involve repetitive sounds (vocal tics) or movements (motor tics) you do not choose to make and cannot control.

Tics involving sounds may include:

• whistling
• sniffing or clearing your throat a lot
• making animal sounds
• repeating a sound, word or phrase
• swearing (this is rare)

 

[Gloster]

It looks as though the characteristics of many of the symptoms of Tourette’s are similar to types of behaviour that in most people are seen as no more than mildly irritating (whistling, sniffing, shrugging the shoulders, etc.), but are being taken to excess. Swearing or using grossly inappropriate language is a particular sub-characteristic of Tourette’s called coprolalia and is only to be found in around 10% of Tourette’s sufferers, but is far more obvious and offensive than the others.

The specific point is that coprolalia is the random use of swearwords, etc., rather than what Wikipedia calls ‘contextual swearing’, at any point in a conversation or when no conversation is going on. As I understand it, contextual swearing means that the swearword is used when grammatically correct, mostly related to a noun or verb, and fits the sense of the rest of the words being spoken and the surrounding situation.