|
How Does Handwriting
Analysis Work? >>
What can't handwriting analysis
reveal? >>
What does my signature show
the handwriting analyst? >>
What Kind of Proof is there
for Handwriting Analysis? >>
Is it Legal to Have Another
Person's Handwriting Analyzed Without Their Consent?
>>
How do I purchase a Handwriting Analysis?
>>
HOW DOES HANDWRITING
ANALYSIS WORK?
Handwriting is a snapshot of the brain's inner thinking at
the time the writing was written. It is nothing more than
that. However, since people do not change their personality
from minute to minute (unless they have multiple personalities),
handwriting analysis has a broader application. But people
should always bear in mind a snap shot is just that: a frozen
frame in the passing of time. If a person is drunk or depressed
when the writing sample was made, of course it will look different
than when the person isn't.
People are not generally aware that the brain must coordinate
about 200 muscles for the body to produce handwriting. The
mind is busy making hundreds of decisions per minute when
handwriting occurs. What the analyst is doing is working backwards.
Why did the mind make that decision? Why did the mind start
the address on the envelope in the lower right corner? Why
did the mind choose to use enormous pressure, and enormous
speed when manipulating the pen? Handwriting analysis works
because a person can only consciously change a small number
of the decisions that the mind has to make in writing. In
other words, he can alter his or her handwriting somewhat,
but it is very difficult to completely change all the decisions
the mind habitually makes when it writes.
People will blame the way they write on their teachers, a
friend they admire, or some other scapegoat. The truth is
that we make the choice ourselves as to how we write. For
over hundreds of years, people have discovered the common
"reasons" (or more precisely "meanings to")
why the mind makes certain decisions. For instance, a fluid
"g" means the person has literary interest. This
is the meaning - but what I have sought to do was to explain
the workings of how and why the brain's choices reflect that
trait. At one time I wanted to write a detailed book explaining
why a certain handwriting decision reflects the meaning that
analysts give to it (Time has not yet permitted the writing
this book!), as there is yet no comprehensive work on this
subject.
It is rare for two people to think exactly alike. This is
why handwriting, which is 'brain-writing', creates nearly
unique handwriting. It is this near uniqueness of handwriting
that allows the science of disputed documents to determine
handwriting forgeries. While the disputed document examiner
will note the way strokes are made or not made, the reason
for these differences between the real and the forgery go
back to the reality that handwriting requires hundreds of
unconscious decisions every minute in order to happen. Top
WHAT CAN'T HANDWRITING
ANALYSIS REVEAL?
What can't handwriting analysis reveal? At times the Graphologist
may be confronted with a sample from someone, who without
saying what their job is, will ask, "Should I change
my job?" Handwriting analysis can not show a person's
actual employment. It is not an occult art or a game, and
questions like this sometimes arise because people don't understand
how handwriting analysis works. It also will not tell us the
sex and age of the writer, even though it may provide clues
as to what these are.
The limitations of what can be accurately determined also
depends upon the quality of samples used, and the training
and techniques of the handwriting analyst. There are a number
of extremely interesting things that the handwriting may reveal
including medical situations and states of mind (drug or alcohol
states, etc.), and compatibility with other personalities.
The handwriting technically cannot predict the future. While
many people, perhaps even most analysts, improperly and inaccurately
say that it can predict the future, a more accurate statement
would be as follows:
Handwriting is a snapshot of the mental processes
of a person the instant the handwriting was performed. Because
people seldom change from day to day, and tend to be consistent,
it is reasonable to expect that the mental processes will
likely be the same in the near future. However, the modern
world has many multiple personalties, mind-altering drugs,
and life changing traumas that can destroy the predictive
ability of an analysis. Therefore it is most accurate to state,
handwriting can not predict the future, but it can give us
important information in dealing with the future. Top
WHAT DOES MY SIGNATURE
SHOW THE HANDWRITING ANALYST?
Signatures are a special kind of stroke. Just as doodles
can be analyzed, but must be given special consideration,
so must signatures. If the handwriting analyst is a Disputed
Documents Examiner, the examiner will be looking at the numerous
features of the handwriting to determine authenticity. The
very same reasons that the Disputed Documents Examiner can
successfully identify a person's handwriting as a legitimate
signature are the same reasons that information can be gleaned
to analyze the writer's character.
The choices in how the signature is formed are reflections
of the person's mental processes, and a forger can only consciously
alter a limited number of these choices. However, for determining
a person's personality, signatures are not to be treated the
same way as the rest of the writing. The same principles of
analysis are used; but the analyst must also be aware of several
things that contrast signatures from the person's handwriting.
A person's signature may vary from situation to situation
(a person may have many faces to show the world), and may
be quite different from his or her everyday handwriting. And
in fact, the signature may not even represent letters but
may be some kind of unrecognizable personal cipher simply
to be recognized as a design. Obviously any handwriting that
is deliberately unreadable means the writer doesn't wish to
communicate for whatever reason. The answer to the question
is this then, signatures can be analyzed if they are analyzed
as signatures. Top
WHAT KIND OF PROOF IS
THERE FOR HANDWRITING ANALYSIS?
Actually there is a great deal of proof for handwriting
analysis. The best centers for research into graphology have
been in northern Europe, and the center for Graphoanalysis
is in Chicago. Speaking with a handwriting analyst is not
the best way to find statistics on the efficacy of handwriting
analysis, because most handwriting analysts are involved with
handwriting in order to perform analyses, and are not involved
in research. You would not expect a fireman to know everything
there is to know about firefighting, and the scientific research
papers documenting that firefighting works. He is concerned
with applying what he knows in a practical manner, and he
knows it works because he puts out fires. Most analysts know
handwriting works because it validates itself everyday for
them. If you have been doing handwriting analysis for 30 years,
as I have, you know how it works. And just like fighting a
fire, sometimes circumstances prevent the techniques from
totally working, but not because the techniques are not viable
correct responses, but in some cases, the analyst doesn't
have enough material to analyze.
Clearly, this web site is not the place for a comprehensive
overview of handwriting research. One word of caution: American
psychologists in general (in contrast with European and Israeli
psychologists) have pooh-poohed the entire idea of handwriting
analysis. Just like the AMA has refused to grant alternative
inexpensive treatments their rightful place, but laud expensive
drugs and surgery; likewise psychologists are not going to
give room for a technique, which works better than all their
complicated theories. At times, these narrow-minded, little-minded
professionals have used their own questionable techniques
such as Freud's psychoanalysis as a ruler with which to gauge
the accuracy of handwriting analysis. This is like using a
warped yardstick to gauge the accuracy of a micrometer - it
is valueless. And this is the problem with studying human
personality. The methods of measuring are still primitive
and varied.
Let's briefly touch on how primitive and varied current measuring
devices are. We have projective techniques like Rorschach
(which has received criticism), and tests such as the MMPI
(which are meant to be objective, but have been misused).
It has only been recently, that a category of Highly Sensitive
People has been properly identified. Gittinger of the CIA
created an effective gauge for measuring personality for the
secret societies, but he was the one who understood it best,
and his ideas haven't gained much attention. These things
are mentioned just to open up the reader to the fact that
psychology and character analysis are relatively new studies,
and still have a ways to go.
It is time to overhaul our methods for evaluating people.
Only by a complete overhaul of how people are assessed are
we going to develop better gauges to evaluate the amazing
value and success of handwriting analysis. However, many of
the people who spend their time analyzing people are wedded
to their primitive techniques and are not about to admit the
limitations of the labels they are slapping onto people. Top
IS IT LEGAL TO
HAVE ANOTHER PERSON'S HANDWRITING ANALYZED WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT?
Yes, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled that a person's
handwriting may be analyzed by anyone without his or her consent:
1. In United States V. Mara, 410 U.S. 19, 41 IW 4185 (1973),
the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment is not violated
by a compelled production of "physical characteristics"
that are constantly exposed to the public. The court stated:
Handwriting, like speech, is repeatedly shown to
the public and there is no more expectation of privacy in
the physical characteristics of a person's script than there
is in the tone of his voice.
2. In United States v. Dionision, 410 U.S. 1, 41 IW 4180
(1973), the Supreme Court held that the physical characteristics
of a person's voice or handwriting or facial characteristics,
being constantly exposed to the public view, are not within
protection of the Fourth Amendment. Top
HOW DO I PURCHASE
A HANDWRITING ANALYSIS?
To find out how to purchase a Handwriting Analysis, click
the "Shopping Cart" link on the green border to the left of
this paragraph. Top
|
