Oh boy

Just looked at the calendar. I didn't stay for the whole party earlier this month that our handwriting group held. Not being there to object I was elected to do a presentation on my book "The Alphabet Speaks" on Feb 14th. Having had no intention of doing any presentations, now I have two weeks to find time to write up an hours worth of something. I did my first monograph on traits and the signs that indicate that trait. So I guess I can go into how I happened to finish that, then how our AHAf chapter worked on researching the beginnings of the alphabet just about the time I was finishing up on my second work "The Alphabet Speaks". Then I will do a plug for my next attempt at defining the fears, defenses, resistances and escapes found in writing. I have a short list in both books but I think this will take me a long time to do as thoroughly as I want. So I better get busy and work on that presentation. Maybe I can do a PowerPoint on some of the pages as a show and tell and hope some more people will buy the book.

My next book

As I mentioned in an earlier blog I have an idea for a new book but it is really turning out to be a hard one to write.When you start to study graphology or handwriting analysis you are given a list of traits and told all the positive and negatives for each trait. Then you are told to stack the traits to see how one will effect another. For example if a person has low self esteem and is timid will they be as likely to get violent as a person with a lot of determination and anger. Well this never helped me all that much because we all know that if a person feels trapped even a timid one can react strongly or even violently. Also if the person with determination has good self control they may not react with violence even though they will hang on to their anger for a long time.
But each trait can fall into the catagory of a fear, defense, resistance, or escape and I am examining each of these to how it would be manifested in each catagory. Not an easy job as I am quickly learning. Some traits easily can be fit into the catagory of a fear or defense or of a resistance or escape. Others not so easily I am starting to think I will have to show the reaction of the trait and how you will see that in the writing. A lot to think about and to work on so this will take me quite awhile. Graphology is such a learning experience.

National Handwriting Day

Today is National Handwriting Day so I am on my soapbox. Stationer's say that special stationary is making a come back as people do feel that a handwritten note or Thank You is much preferable to a e-card which fancy, animated or whatever is just deleted. In the handwriting the personality of the writer and their feeling comes through and it is more special. It means more to the recipient because the sender took the time and trouble to put their thoughts and feelings on paper, perhaps to be kept as a momento.

I am one who decries the lack of handwriting lessons in the schools. I understand that the attention span of children of all ages is short to zip because of the speed of information on the internet in particular. And that is my point. One of the few things educators agree upon is that people with good handwriting skills learn better and spell better than those whose skills are more limited.

One reason for the limited attention span is that so many children learn from videos and games with lots of animation and flickering screens giving information in shorts burst of movement. Then as teens and younger they get to playing games with split screens and fast movement that requires intense concentration and fast reaction. So to do anything in real time with no distracting movement and color is boring. They can't slow down to a reasonable level for the rest of the world and as for spelling. When texting costs by the byte they learn to use single letters for words and phrases or to cut out letters they consider unnecessay so who can blame them if they can't spell.

My grand-daughter is now in pre-school and often will say "pay attention to me" or "look at me" when I am busy and listening but not facing her. I think we all need to do this more frequently and at least try to teach children in the k-5 grades to write better because there were a lot of benefits educators do not realize on the subsconscious level about handwriting and penmanship. It does not have to take hours or even 30 minutes at a time. Daniel Dumont in France has a way of teaching students as early as kindergarten to not only write cursively but extremely well. For one thing she uses rhythmic movement which is then translated to the chalkboard and later to paper. Using circles, loops, and waves she teaches control and how by combining some of these movements the children can actually form words. That really sparks their interest. Another effect of her teaching is being able to properly hold a pen or pencil so they don't have the problem or excuse of sore fingers, bad wrists or cramped hands from writing.
When you slow down to hand write something be it a poem, letter or the worlds next best selling novel thoughts seem to flow easier because you are not moving so fast. It is easier to try a new turn of phrase on paper where you can see both and read through them deciding which is best. Mark Twain was an advocate for getting it all out on paper. "We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we 'modify' before we print," he wrote in his 1883 "Life on the Mississippi."

Loops again?

Yep, now we will look at loops in the lower zone. This is the unconscious, the physical, the sexual and material world. Letters going in the lower zone are supposed to have loops and these loops are supposed to be the same width as the area of the letter in the mid zone.
You guessed it, any difference between what should be and what is means a lot. For starters the lower loop should be the length of the upper loops showing a balance of zones or of the psyche. Extra long loops show a physical person who enjoys movement. They may participate in a sport, dance, cycle, or sometimes just fidget. When working or thinking they often pace the floor or doodle.
Can you guess what unfinished loops would indicate? That's right, they often do not carry through with ideas and projects. This makes them frustrated. A small tight circle on the lower zone belongs to the clannish person one who has few friends he trusts. They may not be anti-social but until they know you well you will not know them well.
As with the upper zone large loops show imagination until it becomes fantasy. A larger than average loop (the size of the mid zone) indicates a desire for creature comforts or worldly goods. There are other loops and missing loops but this is a general overview of the lower zone loops.

More on loops

Loops can be very informative. A large loop on a capital belongs to a person willing to take on responsibility. Indeed they may search out causes to embrace. If however, the loop does not close responsibility may have been forced upon them so while they may handle it well it is not willingly. Usually though, the loops we look for are found on the lower case letters.
When found on the left side of the oval letters (a, d, g, and o) graphologists call this intentional deceit because it is deceit of the self. These people do not relish facing things. Like Scarlet O'Hara they think they will take care of things tomorrow and we all know tomorrow never comes. Sometimes these loops get so big the oval part of the letter is or is nearly doubled. Writers who do this talk around their troubles or perceived troubles. They drop hints so obscure you might miss it entirely or tell their friends or family what is upsetting them in hopes whoever they tell will blab to the person they have a grievence against. This is very passive/agressive but they hate direct confrontation unless there is no other option.
Now there can also be a loop at the top of the o. If the o is closed by just one side touching the other it indicates a person who can hold their tongue and while they may talk can be selective about what they say. If the o is tied like a sack with a little loop the writer can really hang on to secrets.

Loops

Loops occur on upper and lower zone letters and the size of the loop shows the amount of thought or imagination that goes into that area. Loops out of place are an indication of anxiety. A loop on the small t which is supposed to be retraced is an indication of a fear of failure or anxiety that someone is critical of them. A loop on the d which is also supposed to be retraced is a fear of ridicule or anxiety of others criticizing their person in some way, looks, dress, actions etc. The loops on the l show the imagination of the writer. The larger the loop the more the imagination until it becomes fantasy. On the h which is the spiritual letter the size of the loop shows the writers openness to religion and philosophy. Once again the f because it fits into all zones is treated a little differently. If the upper loop is larger the writer is more of a planner the idea man. If the lower loop is larger the writer is the one who will see that jobs, projects etc are carried out.
In the lower zone loops should be the same width as the mid-zone of the letter. It may be missing which will tell us something we will discuss later but if it is larger, again, there is a lot of imagination that has to do with the physical, sexual and material side of life.
Loops found anywhere else are a form of anxiety. These people are the worriers and when you tell them they worry too much they will normally agree completely.

Zones

Well we have talked about the baseline or line of reality, the white spaces or margins so now we will talk about the zones. Remember the paper you learned to write on with three lines to mark the area to write. The lowercase letters a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w and x were made to fit between the bottom line and the dotted line. This is the mid-zone which reflects the day to day world or the ego. The letters b, d, h, k, l, t have a stem that extends above the dotted line into the upper-zone and it represents the mental area or super id. That leaves us with the letters that go below the baseline. The g, j, p, y, and z. The area below the baseline is the physical and material world, the subconscious. Did you notice I left out the f? Well the f is the only letter that goes into all three zones so it will show the balance of the three zones.
It also is used to indicate how organized the writer is in their life. One woman whose writing I looked at had an f that was perfectly balanced with the top and bottom loop the same size and brought together at the baseline. I told her she was very organized and her friends laughed. One said her clothes are color coordinated in the closet, the shoes all in boxes and marked as to size and color and so are her kids closets and toys.

Baselines

The baseline or line of writing is the line of reality. If there is a little bounce in the writing it is ok. A writer who feels the need to use lined paper has a need of control of their environment. They are perfectionists who can be hard to live with if you don't follow their rules. "A place for everything and everything in it's place". Even if they used unlined paper, which will make them uncomfortable, their writing will look like it was done along a ruler.
Baselines can vary quite a bit, some people write uphill, especially if the paper is unlined. These are the optimistic people who see the glass as half full. If the writing goes downhill the writer may be tired or depressed. Go for tired unless there are other sign of depression. Children who write crashing into the right side of the page and finish their sentence writing along the edge of the page do not learn from their mistakes. Teachers sould tell the child to not write on the last inch of the paper using some grapho-therapy to teach them to plan ahead. But if an adult does this they have real problems. Writing that starts on the baseline and the end of words fly off the base shows the writer has trouble keeping their feet on the ground. I have seen some that each word has to be brought back to the baseline and it happens again. Maybe they are just excited about what they are expressing in the writing but it could be they are the person who cannot sit still, always fidgeting. When checking a baseline we draw a pencil line with a ruler using the first and last letter of the sentence. Some graphologists also check the baseline of each word but by using the first and last word you get the sentence baseline. If the line of writing goes over and under the line it is called a sinuous baseline and indicates a person who kind of snakes through life. These make good con men. If a baseline along with other factors indicate depression and then the writing starts to go uphill they are not necessarily getting better but have made their decision to end it all. If they are also giving away possessions and contacting old friends notify somebody, parents, spouse, or their doctor.

Will dishonesty show in writing?

Oooh yes, but unless the graphologist works with law enforcement in some way they generally don't see the really glaring stuff. But, we see the signs that show you deceive yourself and do not want to face things you find unpleasant. Or the person who talks around their issues. They drop hints that may be so broad you miss them and then get angry because you missed a birthday or occassion they felt was special. When I do a quickie and find this I tell the writer "You can't assume the people around you always know what you are upset about. They can't read your mind so you must learn to be more direct and talk to them. You can't tell your friends, family, neighbor, kids, you'd like to attend a concert, go to the movies, its your birthday and expect them to tell your spouse. You must do it and don't just leave notes or drop hints. Tell them and make plans together."
Then too we see the person who will lie by omission or never answer a question if they can help it. Their usual response is to answer with another question. "Why would you ask that?" " Do you need it now?" " What keys?" or just "Why?" You know those people I am sure. I always told my teacher he should have been a psychiatrist because he always asked "What do you think?" or "How do you feel about that?" It drove me crazy because I wouldn't ask if I didn't need an answer or at least a hint of where to look for an answer.
There are also the little white lies we have to tell on a job. "The boss isn't in just now." "Mr. xxx is in a meeting can he call you back?" "Oh, sorry I have an appointment on that day." We all do it at times so it will show up in the writing. Remember the secretary I mentioned. She said looking through her book she could see the times she had to give an evasive answer to a caller.

White space

The white space around your writing tells a graphologist several things. We check the margins or white space around the writing before we even look at the writing. Next we check the white space between the lines of writing. Most letters in copybook are made the width of the letter n so we look to see what the spacing is on the words. A final check for white space on the page is between words. Does this vary or is it fairly evenly done. Do some words seem to lean on each other or crowd one another? One thing we always look for is open spaces that are wider in some areas than in others. As with everything else in graphology anything different means something.

House, tree, water test

Have you ever done a house, tree, water test? Some testers also throw in a snake as an indicator for sexuality. Anyway the house and how it is done will show the friendliness of the artist, the water and the tree the thinking and emotionality of the artist.
It's a quick, easy, general test that can be used for children and adults alike so is often used by teachers and counselors. Drawing, particularly by children will reveal more of their emotional conflicts than years of talking. Its just that you have to be very good to decipher the ones beyond the house, tree and water.
If you would like to do the house, tree, water test contact me and send a scan of your drawing.

More on signatures

Signatures that match the rest of the writing show a what you see is what you get person. When analyzing the whole writing you may find bad things about them. To use an old-fashioned word they may be a scalawag be totally out for themselves but the point is they don't try to make you think they are something they are not by their signature.
When the signature is vastly different from the writing that is a big red flag to check the writing and learn why. An upright slant to the writing but a right slant to the signature shows the writer wants you to see him as friendly and outgoing but really all of his decisions and deals will be made to his benefit. His head rules not his emotions. Conversely a right slant of more than 15 degrees right in the writing and an upright signature indicates the writer wants you to see him as cool and judgemental but in truth they are more friendly and sympathetic. What about the person with very large capital letters? They want you to see them as confident and capable but if they are flourished as well they may be trying to bluff. As the saying goes "dazzle you with diamonds and baffle you with bullshit". The writer with one name larger than the other by which I mean the capital is just a bit larger or more elaborate in some way or both names have the same amount of letter but one is larger shows a preference for that name. This will show you if you should address them informally or as Mr XYZ.
This is why we try never to do just signatures. If pinned down and they don't like your analysis just tell them that to get a true analysis they need to hire you to do a complete analysis.

Signatures - Do you analyze them or not?

Normally we do not analyze just a signature without other writing because the signature is the way you want the world to see you and not necessarily how you really are. I know of a reporter who writes so large there are barely 3 or 4 words on each line used. Also it does not stay between the lines but is very large writing. The signature? So tiny and controlled the two don't look like they could belong to the same person.
Often people will give an analyst just a signature and want to know what it shows. Well surprise, surprise if it is more a scrawl than words then I tell then
1. You probably have to sign so many papers you just scribble.
2. Based on your signature you don't care if people can read your writing or not.
3. You do not want to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
They may be taken back by this so then I explain how the signature is the picture you present to the world.

Doodle tests

So late I wasn't going to write tonight but can't sleep so here goes. The tree, house, family drawing, a doodle test or a tree drawing are psychological tests that like a quickie give a quick insight into a person's personality. I told this to a secretary for the Postal Inspectors once and she went back through her shorthand books of notes she had taken on phone calls and she was amazed. She came back to say she could tell if she was secretive, angry, bored or whatever by the doodles she made while on the phone.
Teachers often do the tree, house, family for grade school children especially problem children. Those whose family life may not be all that good. And in a group the doodle test which consists of about 10 squares with some marks in them. You finish the drawing and then we give you the answers to the test. It's one of those we all hate where they tell you there is no wrong answer. But in a group who fairly well know each other it can be fun. Most people will have the same type of drawing but there is usually one or two who are more detailed or just different.
I once gave a group of five people a 4" by 4" post-it note and asked for a tree, house drawing and what fun. One had a plain tree with a puffy top that did not cut across the tree trunk and never did a house said there was no room. Two did puffy topped trees that did cut across the trunk and one put a bird nest in the top. One had a house that looked like the garage was half torn down and we just saw the top of the tree above the house. However, the last was amazing. This one had a mountain in the background with an eagle in the sky. In the foreground was a smaller mountain with a cabin and on the porch was a rocking chair. The steps of the cabin went down to a dock where a dog was barking at a man fishing in a boat. The tree was a fir tree. I could not believe this gal got all that on that little page, in such detail and she didn't take any longer that the rest of the group.
I don't often use doodle tests but this one was such a surprise. I'm glad I did it this time.

Too tired tonight to write

This was My Red Hat's day and then we had the grandchildren so my brain isn't in gear enough to write anything. Also I want to work on some signatures I obtained today. We usually only work on signatures in conjunction with the rest of the writing because the signature is what you want to world to see and not necessarily how you really are. But as in the case of the candidates signatures and one other I got today I will make an exception. Besides I can't resist analyzing every writing I receive.

What is a "Quickie"?

A "quickie" is the type of analysis done to intrigue someone, to entertain, or at a low price for a fund raiser. You are given a paper or large index card and asked to write a silly sentence which contains a variety of letters or whatever you want to write as long as it is 3 or 4 lines in length, which hopefully will give the same variety. Then I check the margins or where you started to write, the slant of the writing, if it is printed, cursive, or printscript which is a mixture. Next I check the line of writing or baseline to see if it rises, is rigidly straight, goes up or drops. While doing this I check for the connections between the letters. There are 6 types of connectors but mainly 3 are used by the majority of people. Also I feel the back of the paper or card to see how hard you pressed when doing the sentences. All of this before I even get to the writing! There is even more I would check if this were a full analysis. Are you getting a feel for why it takes so long to become a good graphologist?
Finally to the writing. I see how it compares to copybook or school form writing, I check the letters which pertain to the self, check the size of loops on the letters, look for loops where there should be none, the size and shape of the oval letters like the a,d, g, and o, I look at where the t is crossed, to see if one part of the writing is exaggerated, are i dots or punctuation missing. Out of all of this I quickly pick out three to five things I can tell you about yourself. Even if you think I might be wrong if you are with a friend or family they will tell you I am right.

Why are some analyses so general?

Most of the time we do not work with the writing of criminals so we keep our comments, especially doing a quickie, to general things. That is why so many people think handwriting analysis is a trick or like astrology too general to trust. In doing a quickie, which is what is done for entertainment at parties, for fund raisers, or maybe as a "filler" at an event, the 3 to 5 traits that stand out most or anything unusual are addressed.
Now especially in a room full of say doctors most of the traits will be alike because they are in the same profession. Once in awhile though that one person comes up whose writing is so different you ask "why are you in this profession". I recently was asked to analyze a scientists writing that was in that catagory. This man had the soul of a poet and from his writing it must have been an ordeal to work in his field.
My grandfather was so good at baseball he was asked to play in the major leagues when they were first being formed but his father insisted he aprentice to a machinest. He died a machinest and never forgave his father for taking away his dream. Maybe something like that had happened to this scientist. It was expected that he follow in his fathers footsteps so like it or not he did but it had to be a daily battle.

A Funny Thing Happened

In Ron's handwriting classes we were encouraged to bring samples, everyone would toss out their observations and opinions, then whoever brought the sample would tell us what they knew about the person. Having recently visited my brother who was an incomplete quad I submitted his writing. Right away he was identified as having a neurological as well as muscular problems. His writing otherwise was very well analyzed so I revealed his trouble. He fell and broke his neck at the C-4 vertebrae. It left him with no feeling from the neck down though he could walk with a walker to stabilize himself but his hands were almost claws with the use of one or two fingers and his thumbs. However, he could barely use his arms. The elbows remained bent and his arms could not be lifted even half way to shoulder level. I used his real name Alfred Kabisch and a couple in the class exclaimed "we know a Fritz Kabisch!" I said "yes that's how everyone knows him". Well, it turns out they had been friends with Fritz and his wife Vickie, in fact, I had actually met them about 15 years earlier at their wedding. Here we had been in class together for about 3 years and never knew we had a connection.

Not much to say

Been a busy day today and I did another page for my web site so nothing left in my brain for a blog. So if you want to learn about handwriting bop on over to my web pages.
www.handwritingexplained.com and I will try to come up with something for here tomorrow.

Web Site

I think I am finally getting somewhere with the web site. At least I can link to it from here and to here from the web site. So funny because we all three are trying to do web sites. Steve for his car sales business, my daughter for her poetry. And all three of us are using different programs to build our sites and facing some of the same problems.
My writing about handwriting is going on my web pages right now but they limit the number of pages so soon I will put all my thoughts here again.
Over the years I have done several presentations for the Tucson chapter of AHAF (the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation) so may present them here. Who knows. Since our teacher Ron Laufer died in 1999 we have gone from weekly classes to monthly AHAF meetings and the Chapter has gone down hill. Not sure why but the IGAS people dropped out and then many of the older members quit driving at night, and I admit it was a long drive home for some of them. Anyway we are down to around 16 members so if 8 to 10 make the meeting its a crowd. We worked on a project as a chapter last year that made no real sense but the research was fun. Only had 2 really interesting presentations all year and frankly I am ready to drop out myself. Been swearing for 3 years now this was my last and this time I think I mean it.
I truly miss the lessons because we were encouraged to give our input, we played silly games that related to graphology terms, did mock trials and of course tried our darndest to win that "hot shot award".
Some of our presentations were lessons in themselves. A former teacher challenged us to match her children with their handwriting. What made it such a challenge was we had info on more students than we had writings. So it wasn't as if we could get them right by sheer luck. To top this all of her students had problems ranging from tourettes to parents in jail for killing the other parent. She also had their tree, house, family drawings and these proved very interesting as well. No problem picking the prissy little southern belle's drawing as it showed a girl on a swing in the front yard in a long gown and crown of curls. Or the sadness of the little girl who drew herself and her teacher as family.
Another of our presentations has been on tree drawings obtained along with the handwritings from their collection of samples. Now I have to say, my drawing of a tree is very childish as I have trouble drawing a straight line with a ruler but some of theirs are so detailed! The wildest one of all was this small tree in the middle of a page with some squiggles or roots inside the top. Very strange tree...turns out the girl was pregnant, very immature and not sure who the father was.
But my very favorite presentation was in 3 parts and done on Tombstone Az. My friend Lynn Monroy did a very thorough job on the Earps, the Clantons and the gunfight at the OK Corral. She developed it for use on cruise ships so told us it was not really for graphologists but she had handwriting from Wyatt both at that time period and in later life. For Doc Holliday plus a lot of information on Doc. We found the county recorder did a lot of writing for the men who did not know how to write and learned at that time the territory of Arizona was mostly populated by the cowboys and the outlaws or rustlers though sometimes the differences were hard to tell. It's amazing how Hollywood changed the ages and images of the real people.

Web sites arggghhh

Trying to set up a web site and they don't make it easy. Like most instructions for anything computer related the powers that be seem to think you know something about what you are trying to do. As for me I need to be told where the on and off switch is to be found and maybe the plug. I took a computer class once and the first thing the teacher said was a computer is retarded. You not only have to tell it what to do but how to do it. So you wouldn't say walk 5 paces turn around and come back but have to tell it to lift the right foot, move it forward so many inches, put it down. Now shift your weight to the right foot, raise the left foot and move it so many inches, put it down etc etc until it completed the task. Well that is me trying to do a web page. Don't give me intuitive because that doesn't mean a thing give me explicit instructions. In fact if a program looks interesting and the designer claims it to be intuitive I probably won't buy it because I will have such a hard time figuring it out. Anyway bounce on over to www.handwritingexplained.com and check out what I have finally accomplished.

I'm wondering how long I will keep this up during the year. I once started a blog on yahoo 360 just for family but didn't keep it going. Then yahoo made changes so I'm not sure if it still exists. Guess I should try to find out and if so delete it.
I am passionate about my graphology which is a fancy way of saying handwriting analysis. I miss the weekly lessons we had when Ron Lauffer was alive. That Irish leprechaun made learning so much fun. I told him he needed to learn to ask questions so we knew just what he wanted. I also told him he must be a psychiatrist because he never answered a question but would ask "what do you think?". He wrote great lessons but if you think my sentences run on you should have seen his. Mary Love and I were the odd ones in class being cumulative thinkers with rounded handwriting. Everyone else had the angular writing of logical, questioning, analytical thinkers. But even they looked at each other when he would toss us a question. He spent a lot of time in the hospital and collected these tiny bottles of hot sauce which he gave out as "a hot shot award" when we answered a particularly tough question. After 5 years in his class I finally earned one. I was so proud I thought I'd never forget the question. Sad to say I have but it had to so with the space on the paper. The white space can sometimes be as telling as the writing to a graphologist. I do still have my "hot shot award" and am still proud that I finally made the grade.
As a cumulative thinker I learn things more slowly, cannot skip steps in a routine or pattern and learn faster by writing it out or actually doing what I am learning about. The upside is I retain it longer than the rest of you comprehensive or analytical thinkers. But if you ask a question I have to figure out exactly what is being asked before I get the answer. Kids who think like me can do good in school and bad on tests because it takes longer to do them. To do that extra step. That is one reason I so enjoy doing career day at school or the quickies like we do at the church fair because you give the teacher or parent some insight as to why the kids act like they do or have trouble with tests etc. More on this later when I intend to write about impulse control.