Handwriting Analysis
& Personality Traits

by Joelle Steele

Graphology can tell you more than you might imagine about yourself, your family members, your loved ones, spouse, co-worker, or friends. You can use graphology to determine, among many other things, whether a person is honest, spiritual, materialistic, attentive to detail, affectionate, aloof, angry, ill, mentally unstable, or has a sense of humor — even how that humor manifests itself.

To make such analyses, all you need are some samples of your own handwriting or of the person about whom you want personality insights. In the case of people wondering if they are compatible, some samples of each person's handwriting are analyzed and compared. Even career choices can be narrowed down by an in-depth analysis of one's handwriting, much in the same way as personnel hiring decisions are made.

To properly analyze handwriting, a graphologist has to look at a lot more than just the shapes of the letters. They have to look at how the handwriting is placed on the page, whether there are margins or not and where and how big they are; the degree and direction of the slant; the amount of pressure exerted on the page, the connecting lines between letters; the initial and ending strokes; the size and shape of loops; the overall size of the writing; the degree and direction of slope of the lines; and a host of other characteristics, including the formations of the individual letters; the i-dots and t-bars; and the "idiosyncratic traits" — those characteristics which are completely unique to a particular writer.

The individual traits themselves mean something, but what really tells the story of a personality is the combination of all traits put together into a "Gestalt" or picture-pattern of the person. And, since a personality changes over time, those changes are reflected in the handwriting, which changes over time as well.

Health issues are often present in handwriting and may appear before a person even suspects he or she might be ill. For example, a 62-year-old woman once showed me her handwriting because she was concerned about the fact that it had changed so much in recent months. Her writing had become rather small and cramped with a slight tremor to it — a very well-known indicator of the onset of Parkinson's Disease. She went to her doctor and the onset of Parkinson's was, sadly, confirmed.

In addition to evaluating a personality, there is a school of thought that by changing your handwriting you can change your personality. This is called "graphotherapy" or "grapho-therapeutics," terms coined by the French graphologist who pioneered the practice, Paul de Sainte Colombe (1891-1972). He felt that this was a particularly important practice for children, since their handwriting, like their characters, was in a formative stage. However, he also believed that adults of any age could benefit from such a practice, e.g., someone with a lack of will power could improve that weakness merely by learning to make strong t-bars in their handwriting.

Here's a simple quiz that reveals some common misconceptions about handwriting personalities:

TRUE OR FALSE?

1) Messy handwriting means sloppy work habits.
2) Very small, neat handwriting means attention to detail.
3) Unusual or fancy handwriting means artistic ability.
4) Handwriting that looks just like copybook letters means the writer has traditional values.
5) Printing instead of cursive handwriting means immaturity.

NOW ... SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ANSWERS ...

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1. False. Usually means someone who writes very fast and thinks on his/her feet. 
2. False. Maybe, but it usually means someone who is shy or even insecure. 
3. False. Usually means someone who wants attention — all the time.
4. False. Usually means a person who is immature or doesn't write very often. 
5. False. Usually means someone who is organized or methodical.