Above is a clip from a British documentary Teenage Tourette's Camp, which aired a few years ago on ITV. While it's hard not to laugh when someone utters curse words at random, we understand that these kids have a disorder. Still, we're a little bit jealous, because it seems like they're able to get away with saying whatever the hell is on their minds. (They reiterate that they don't mean what they say, but we sort of think that at least a part of them does.) Take Jessica, who yells the "N-word" at black people, or screams "bomb" in airports. Then there's Jen, a heavy-set girl who is used to being mocked for her tics in her hometown, but expected to be treated better by kids with the same disorder. Clip above.
Tourette Syndrome Information Page [National Institutes of Health]
DISCUSSION
@PhillyLass: The word clearly must enter the person's thoughts, but that doesn't mean the person is making any judgment of that thought. I have 2 black cats. When I look at black cats, I think nice warm and fuzzy thoughts. But on a certain level, my brain is probably unconsciously associating "halloween" and "bad luck" when I see a black cat. But my experience filters that out so that my conscious association is warm and fuzzy.
We don't realize how much our brain unconsciously filters out when we are looking for the right word. The "wrong" word is not necessarily something true, it's just a word that is associated. Most likely, the n word does come up in many of our unconscious thoughts, but it is never something that would get close to moving to the conscious. It comes up not because we are racist, but because we have been exposed to the word and know its meaning.