Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Personalities and Penmanship

     I've always found graphology interesting.  The idea that the inner workings of a person can be seen clearly through their subconscious writing habits is remarkable, but I've never seen the reasoning behind it.  There doesn't seem to be any information on why broad strokes means a person is angry or why crowded letters means they feel isolated from society, but instead, page after page stating that it is true.  I also find it strange that there is no information on how results can be misinterpreted.  If someone is feeling particularly angry one day why does their handwriting not change?  If someone suffers a close family loss and they feel alone, will their handwriting suddenly reflect that?
     As someone who has always struggled with clear and neat handwriting, I have to constantly remind myself to slow down to make it legible.  When my writing needs to be read by another person, I am even more careful and sometimes write entirely in capitals to increase legibility.

 
   The above picture is one of the anthrax letters sent to a senator.  This site, has an attempt by a graphologist to interpret the writers personality.  The following is an excerpt from the site:

But there is also a strong element of fatalism. 
In this last sample, the "e" of "we" in the second line falls well below the imaginary base line as does the "r" in "America". 
There are further indications of this in other places such as the e in "die" in the third line. 
These signs together with the downward trend of the lines – particularly in the envelope - show an acceptance of the inevitable.
These signs are further supported by the slow execution of each letter as well as the precision and care in the construction of the individual formations. This intensifies the sense of purpose. 
And so we see this not only as a show of acceptance but also as an indication of unwavering determination
When we examine all these indicators together - the heavy t- strokes, the dark though inconsistent pressure, the carefully drawn punctuation marks, the meticulously formed numerals in all the samples - we can only conclude one thing. That the signs of intent and determination are not only evident in the content of the letters; they also show up in every stroke of the pen and in every letter formation.

     This picture may as well be my own handwriting.  When I am being careful i write almost exactly the same.  Since my natural handwriting is sloppy I'm sure there is also some letters that go below the baseline.  This in no way describes me.  Furthermore, each individual interpretation seems to be connected more so to the context of the letter rather then the style of writing.

1 comment:

  1. I wonder what the graphologists would have deduced if the same handwriting was used to write a positive message about unicorns and rainbows.

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