Your Personality In Handwriting

When I was asked to examine the manuscript for this book I approached the task with keen interest for the reason that in bringing this subject to the fore the au¬thor performs a good service. While handwriting analy¬sis is used as a supplemental diagnostic tool in the field of psychological testing the purpose of this book is to acquaint the non-professional person with the functioning of graphology and the way it can help him to under¬stand his own basic personality as well as to give an in¬sight into those in whom he is interested. The book also tells the reader the analytical methods by which a pro¬fessional graphologist is able to discover fundamental po¬tential abilities in a handwriting which could serve as a guide for the better application of them.Graphology is neither guesswork nor prediction. It is a serious study of the way in which the writer expresses his individuality by the hundreds of indications shown in the handwriting such as the size of the small and capi¬tal letters the pressure spacing margins and dozens of other signs which must first be considered separately and then put together to produce the sum total of the per-sonality picture. While intuition on the part of the analyst plays some part in this work (just as it is well for anyone who works with people to have intuition) the conclusive analysis of a handwriting depends on practical applica-tion of the theories of graphology to the work. Too often the layman will look at a specimen of handwriting and say My intuition tells me this writer is a salesman . . . whereas the professional graphologist knows this is a prob¬able guess but not always a sure one; the handwritinganalyst does not guess even though the keenness of in-tuition may respond to that particular writing and recog-nize it to be an outgoing personality which might fit into sales work.The graphologist does not base an analysis merely on the separate formations or signs in the writing; what a crossing of the letter t or the dotting of an i may sig-nify in one handwriting may not hold true in another person's writing. The way the indications in the specimen of handwriting relate to one another is the process by which the careful analysis should be made. Therefore while the separate meanings of individual signs are given in this book the reader must not be led into the easy and often erroneous path of trying to determine a person's fundamental character simply by one or two formations which are prominent in the handwriting. It is well to bear in mind too that in the printing of this book the repro-ductions of the specimens of handwriting may not show the actual pressure and connections of the lines of writing as clearly as in the originals.An amusing question is usually put to the graphologist: Why can't I change my handwriting so that it will con-tain all the superlative traits which are discussed in a book on handwriting analysis? Won't you then be fooled? The answer to that is a flat NO because handwriting is an instinctive gesture of the inner personality; the harder a person tries to imitate a style of handwriting the more phoney it will appear and immediately the graphologist has the first clue to the falseness of the hand¬writing and proceeds to make the analysis between the phoney lines. Nobody by consciously trying to change to a style or type of penmanship changes his fundamen¬tal personality — and that will come out regardless of how cleverly the writer may think he has fooled the graphologist.This book gives a fine insight into the meaning and function of graphology. But the amateur graphologist must be warned that just reading one book on the subject does not make him an expert handwriting analyst! The subject cannot be absorbed hastily or flippantly; it requires long and serious study if one is to become a professional in the field.