Kiss

We look upon kissing as a thoroughly normal expression of the libido, although it is true that the erotogenic zone in this case serves the purpose of object-love. The kiss does not claim the significance of a final sexual aim, but only represents a preparatory act.

Abraham positions the kiss as the canonical evidence that the oral erotogenic zone persists into adult libidinal life, functioning as preparatory rather than terminal sexual activity, while acknowledging that for some subjects it may become the essential aim itself.

Abraham, Karl, Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis, 1927thesis

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Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed him.

Edinger frames Judas's kiss as the archetypal sign of betrayal, a gesture in which the outward form of intimacy is deployed as the instrument of shadow action, marking the kiss as a site where love and treachery become indistinguishable.

Edinger, Edward F., The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, 1987thesis

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The Son of God leaning towards her like a sweet lover, and giving to her soul the softest kiss, said to her at the second Sanctus: 'In this Sanctus addressed to my person, receive with this kiss all the sanctity of my divinity and of my humanity.'

James's presentation of Saint Gertrude's mystical vision treats the divine kiss as a vehicle of sanctifying union, collapsing erotic and pneumatic registers into a single consecrating gesture at the boundary of human and divine.

James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience Amazon, 1902thesis

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It takes another event, the kiss of the prince (or ogre, or God) to bring new life and fruitfulness to light.

Miller reads the fairy-tale kiss as a mythological transformation event in which divine or heroic masculine energy interrupts the enchanted latency of the unconscious and restores the dynamic of living consciousness.

Miller, David L., The New Polytheism: Rebirth of the Gods and Goddesses, 1974supporting

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Apart from one exception (to kiss / sister's kiss) the patient so to speak never bothers with the meaning of the stimulus-word but contents herself with the perception of the outer word-form.

In Jung's word-association experiment, 'to kiss' is the sole stimulus to which a hysterical patient responds with meaningful personal content, functioning as an involuntary disclosure of an underlying emotionally charged complex.

Jung, C. G., Experimental Researches, 1904supporting

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like threatening bulls they turn aside their heads, where they should be kissed, and offer their flatterers their knees to kiss or their hands, thinking that quite enough to ensure them a happy life

Auerbach cites Ammianus's satirical description of Roman aristocrats who redirect the customary kiss of salutation into a social performance of power, illustrating the kiss's function as a ritual of hierarchical deference.

Auerbach, Erich, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1953aside

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