Concept in Definition ABC

It is not often to have an intense impression or something that leaves us especially astonished. When it happens, we say that we are perplexed. Thus, perplexity is an idea that we manifest before a event unexpected.

Through reason we are able to foresee what is going to happen. We have a very clear idea about the phenomena of nature and we understand their regularity. If clouds appear with a dark color, we already have a mental image that it is predictably going to rain. We anticipate events through experience that we have accumulated. Likewise, the daily life of each person is subject to a routine; work, leisure and rest are basically programmed. We therefore know roughly what will happen.

However, unexpectedly and without any warning or signal, events or news appear that cause us a sensation of great impact. When this happens, confusion occurs for a few seconds. At the moment of receiving the information, we express perplexity. We do it with some interjection: ay, oh, ah... They are manifestations of language that communicate precisely a degree of perplexity. In addition to interjections, the language

bodily starts up and we open our mouths as a sign of astonishment, we raise our eyebrows, we put our hands to our heads or we open our arms. Words and gestures come together in the moment of perplexity.

The feeling of surprise that we experience when faced with what produces perplexity does not by definition have a positive or negative character. Both options are possible. It can be said that stupefaction (synonymous with perplexity) brings about a degree of paralysis, as if time had stopped. It takes a few seconds for us to assimilate the idea of ​​perplexity. In language colloquial It is said I do not get out of my astonishment when it is difficult for us to understand what has caused the surprise.

For there to be a feeling that makes us feel perplexed, it must have some special characteristic. It has to be something different, unusual, illogical, unheard of, incredible. In short, something that alters normality.

It is not enough that there is a rare event for us to express perplexity, we must have a certain capacity for astonishment. People with a great sensitivity or susceptibility, they are prone to bewilderment, as they are easily impressed. Instead, an individual with a temperament cold and cerebral, it is probably more difficult to surprise and consequently less perplexed.

Topics in Perplexity