“The mind had to secrete affection”
Kiss of the Spider Woman“As if the mind had to secrete affection without stopping” is a metaphor for attachment as an ongoing, involuntary activity. By comparing the mind to a secreting body and affection to a flow that cannot simply be shut off, the phrase frames emotional attachment not as weakness but as something that keeps finding an outlet.
The Metaphor
The comparison begins with digestion: the mind is said to secrete affection in the same way the stomach secretes juices. It then shifts from an internal bodily process to a “leaky faucet,” whose drops continue to fall because they cannot be turned off. The image makes affection persistent and difficult to control, while leaving open why it continues: the speaker can only suggest that it is spilling over the top of its container.
Attachment and Reminders
In the exchange, this idea is tied to a person who cannot avoid thinking about his girl because he becomes attached to anything that reminds him of her. The metaphor thus gives a concrete shape to that experience: affection does not remain confined to its original object but drips onto associated things. The sequence—from bodily secretion, to leakage, to overflow—presents attachment as both continuous and liable to spread beyond the person who first inspired it.
