Can a person’s handwriting reveal their personality and aptitude for a job? That’s what many handwriting experts, called graphologists, claim — and millions of people may be denied jobs because of this controversial practice.
Graphology is not the same thing as forensic handwriting analysis, which can be used in investigations to authenticate historical documents, for example, or determine whether a signature has been forged.
Instead, graphologists claim that they can determine many aspects of a person’s personality and mental status from their handwriting. Words showing a forward slant reveals an outgoing personality, for example, while a backward slant indicates a shy, reserved person. Some even claim to diagnose medical conditions: people who write their descending letters (such as j, g, or y) with a break in them are said to have back problems.
Canadian psychologist Barry Beyerstein, author of The Write Stuff: Evaluations of Graphology, the Study of Handwriting Analysis, explains that “oddly, many who would sneer at astrology or palm reading still assume that, inasmuch as writing is a form of expressive behavior, our style of penmanship might reveal something about our psychological makeup…. because writing, aptitudes, and personality are all controlled by the brain, the suggestion that they could somehow be related does not seem inherently absurd.”
Indeed, exactly this correlation is claimed. As The Complete Book of Fortune explains, “Each variation of movement is unconsciously directed by the brain, and it is because of this that the graphologist can judge the mental state of the writer. From certain signs one can judge willpower and intellect; the extent of the writer’s emotions; his or her morals; and … profession.” Thus, graphologists believe, a page or two of handwriting can distinguish between an accountant and a chef, a go-getter and a layabout, or a thief and an honest man.
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