Political Correctness Gone Dreamy

I have some sympathy for the idea of political correctness. At its heart lies a message of kindness to your fellow man (or woman). Be nice to each other or else people will frown and you’ll find it slightly embarrassing. It has, of course, become de rigueur to take the piss out of political correctness as it is usually uttered with its standard suffix: ‘gone mad’. Even this in itself might be considered not politically correct, after all it could be offensive to those who really have gone mad (I mean, those who are suffering some from a mental illness).

These faintly amusing jokes can go on for ever, and they frequently do. Still, many people’s daily lives are blighted by a little too much political correctness, and many of us automatically correct for it as a matter of course. Still there’s good news, there’s one last bastion of our mental lives still holding up against the onslaught of PCness: our dreams.

Research from the University of Mannheim reports we are still resolutely non-PC in the things that we tend to dream about. Men like to dream about other men, violence, sex, cars and weapons while women dream about food, clothing and personal appearance.

Enjoy it while you can though because it’s probably only a matter of time before some sort of smart drug is introduced to ensure an equal opportunities policy while you sleep.


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Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.