In an era of color-coding to manage our social relationships and greeting rites, where does kissing and its multiple meanings over the centuries now stand?

Autoeroticism, development of virtual communication and remote emotions—the pandemic seems to have brought what was already a growing trend to the fore: creating distance between ourselves and others, and evaluating the consequences of contact, is pushing us toward a cold, dry and sterile world of emotional and physical loneliness.

In reality, it can be seen that this evolution is fueling resistance, like a rebellion, where kissing has reclaimed pride of place. In order to live with greater warmth and intensity, we have to take the risk of kissing each other. Looking back over the history of kissing, which was long more of a political and religious practice than a romantic one, and basing himself, most notably, on a recent sociological study he participated in, Kaufmann draws our attention to and analyzes the surprising emergence of a new kind of romanticism in our feelings.