Graphology in the Workplace: A Growing Recruitment Tool

Today, graphology is gaining more ground as a powerful tool for personnel selection. Did you know that many major companies already use it in their hiring processes?

Although the study of handwriting began in the 19th century, over time it has evolved into a valuable tool for businesses. It belongs to the category of projective tests, yet stands out due to the many advantages it offers.

Handwriting in Hiring: What’s Behind the Graphology Test?

You’re in the middle of a selection process: personal interviews, group dynamics, psychometric tests… and suddenly, you’re asked to complete a handwriting analysis.

But what exactly are recruiters looking for in your writing or signature? What does your handwriting reveal about you?

The answer is simple: handwriting, like facial features, is a unique expression of identity.

Why Your Handwriting Matters in Job Interviews?

Some HR departments use graphology to identify personality traits that could directly influence how a candidate performs in a role. Through a spontaneous piece of writing—not copied or rehearsed—the goal is to tap into the unconscious mind, unveiling competencies, attitudes, and key aspects of a person’s character.

Today, applying for a job is easier than ever thanks to online platforms. However, as you move through the selection stages, you may be asked to write a handwritten letter or paragraph. The purpose isn’t to judge your penmanship, but to understand who you truly are—and whether your profile aligns with the competencies required for the role.

How Graphology Helps Companies Find the Right Talent

A graphologist can analyze various intellectual and emotional traits, such as:

• Willpower, perseverance, and personal values.
• Emotional stability, adaptability, and self-regulation.
• Behavioral patterns and unconscious blocks.
• Professional competencies and role suitability (e.g., leadership vs. support roles).

This offers a complete picture of your character, personality, strengths, skills, and development areas.

You might like this article—keep reading here: Graphology Chart.

How to Prepare for a Graphology Test: 4 Simple Tips

1. Relax: Take three deep breaths before you start writing.
2. Plan your layout: Think about where to place the date, your name, the company name, and your signature.
3. Avoid corrections: Excessive cross-outs or edits may reflect confusion or insecurity.
4. Don’t try to write “neatly”: The analysis isn’t about visual beauty, but about structure, margins, rhythm, pressure, slant, size, and more.

The graphologist will also assess how you use space on the page—where you position text, how you manage margins, balance, and your signature.

Graphology: A Strategic Tool in Recruitment

In any hiring process, it’s essential to assess both technical skills and the values and competencies that will support the candidate’s performance and development in the role.

Can handwriting reveal responsibility, emotional balance, or leadership potential? Surprisingly, yes. Every stroke, space, and shape on the page reflects deeper aspects of a person’s psyche. That’s why more HR professionals are turning to graphology as a complementary evaluation tool.

This technique doesn’t just provide a new perspective—it streamlines decision-making by identifying whether a candidate truly matches the required competencies.

How Does Graphology Help in Recruitment?

Used as a support tool, graphology assists HR professionals in detecting qualities that may not be evident through interviews or resumes.

Understanding the Competency Filter in Recruitment

It’s a method that helps select only those candidates who truly possess the values, skills, and aptitudes needed for a specific role—making recruitment faster and more efficient.

The 3 Competencies Employers Look For—Which One Defines You?

1. Leadership Competencies: For executive or managerial roles.
2. General Competencies: Responsibility, ethics, emotional stability—useful in nearly all jobs.
3. Job-Specific Competencies: For example, communication skills in sales or public relations roles.

Benefits of Graphology

• Differentiates leadership from support profiles quickly.
• Evaluates whether a candidate meets general or specific competencies.
• Provides quicker results than other psychological tests.

What Does a Graphology Test Evaluate?

New to graphology? Here’s what experts look for in handwriting:

1. Letter Form
   Reveals moral, cultural, and ethical behavior.

• Angular letters: Strong, logical, rational personality.
• Rounded letters: Passive, social, harmonious character.

2. Letter Size
   Reflects self-esteem and self-projection.

• Large: Desire to be noticed.
• Small: Shyness or social difficulty.

3. Writing Pressure
   Indicates energy and commitment levels.

• Strong: Confidence, decisiveness.
• Light: Insecurity, emotional fragility.

4. Spatial Distribution
   Shows organization and time management.

• Tight spacing: Logic, perseverance.
• Wide spacing: Independence, but may suggest difficulty integrating.

5. Writing Direction
   Reflects emotional state.

• Upward: Positive mood, enthusiasm.
• Downward: Discouragement, emotional fatigue.

6. Writing Speed
   Linked to mental agility and responsiveness.

• Fast: Proactivity, energy.
• Slow: Caution, need for reflection.

7. Signature
   Highly revealing—it’s like a compact version of your life story.

Graphology: A High-Potential Resource

While graphology doesn’t replace traditional evaluation tools, it offers deep insights into personality, making it a valuable asset in recruitment. Its ability to reveal competencies, attitudes, and emotional nuances positions it as an increasingly in-demand method among companies seeking more human, accurate, and strategic hiring.

Final Thought: Your Handwriting Says More Than You Think

Graphology can be a powerful tool to help companies identify the right talent. If you’re asked to take a handwriting test, see it as an opportunity to express your authentic self. Your handwriting could open doors—if it aligns with what the job requires.

These mechanisms are normal and natural in human mental activity and are present in everyone. However, they can become problematic if overused or applied too rigidly.

They are unconscious resources we use to find balance, avoid suffering, and eliminate from our consciousness painful experiences that we have not been able to process or understand, which hinder our healthy functioning.

The Professional Graphologist Must Know Defense Mechanisms

For a professional graphologist to conduct a complete and accurate analysis of personality, it is essential to understand ego defense mechanisms. These mechanisms are fundamental to understanding how people handle stress, anxiety, and conflict situations. Without this knowledge, we are limited to describing the graphical aspects of handwriting without truly delving into the deeper meaning of the writing.

Defense Mechanisms in Handwriting

What Happens When Defense Mechanisms Are Overused

Defense mechanisms are a normal part of our functioning, but in certain cases, they can become problematic. Inappropriate, very intense, or excessive use of these mechanisms can cause problems such as suppressing feelings, developing psychological and physical symptoms, affecting our identity, and increasing dependency on habits and fantasies. This can hinder our functioning and reduce honesty and intimacy in our relationships, without resolving the underlying conflict.

Graphology detects defensive mechanisms through the psychological types defined by Freud in the Oral, Anal, and Phallic stages. By analyzing handwriting, one can identify the predominant stage and, consequently, the defensive techniques being used. This analysis allows for a deeper and more accurate study of personality, contributing to a more complete and scientific graphological profile from a psychological perspective.

Defense Mechanisms by Anna Freud

Ego defense mechanisms were first proposed by Sigmund Freud (1925), but it was his daughter, Anna Freud (1973), who delved deeper into the topic and made the first systematic classification. Without these defense mechanisms, we would act solely on impulses. If these defenses did not activate when we feel basic emotions like fear or anger, it could cause mental imbalances.

Ego defense mechanisms act unconsciously and do not change reality but try to reduce the anxiety it causes us. We all use one or more of these mechanisms in different situations, although each person predominantly uses certain mechanisms, which characterizes their personality type.

They are classified as primary or secondary based on when they appear in our development. Primary defenses develop early in life and tend to deny reality. Secondary defenses develop later and usually maintain a sense of reality.

Regression in handwriting

Regression is the unconscious process by which an individual returns to immature, more childlike, and less demanding behavior patterns to evade conflict and find security. This involves reverting to behaviors that are presumed to have been overcome and processed, as they correspond to earlier developmental stages. For example, an adult who throws a tantrum like a child when something does not go as expected.

In Handwriting: To interpret, read HERE the Graphical Aspects.

• Order: Decreasing left margin, large right margin, delayed punctuation, concentrated writing.
• Size: Small writing with short downstrokes.
• Shape: Childish letters, inconsistent connections.
• Speed: Slow writing.
• Direction: Descending lines.
• Slant: Reversed.
• Pressure: Heavy.
• Continuity: Disconnected writing, inconsistent cohesion, regressive writing.
• Reflex Letters: Low crossbars on “t”.
• Signature: To the left, signature enclosed by a flourish.

Read also: How to analyze your signature

Repression

Repression involves preventing painful or dangerous thoughts and feelings, which generate anxiety, from entering consciousness. This mechanism activates when a desire conflicts with morality (the Superego). Instead of confronting these thoughts or memories, the mind pushes them into the unconscious. For example, the desire to harm another person. A thought is removed from consciousness due to its disturbing potential. An immoral thought that is set aside remains in the unconscious, generating symptoms. Everything repressed expresses itself through external symptoms, returning as fantasies, slips of the tongue, failures, relationship difficulties, breakups, etc. Repression involves a constant “mental energy expenditure” that weakens the personality.

• Order: Predominance of white space, decreasing left margin, concentrated writing.
• Shape: Threadlike writing, angular, presence of arcs.
• Slant: Moderately reversed.
• Continuity: Regressive writing.
• Reflex Letters: Split ovals.
• Signature: To the left.

Displacement

Displacement occurs when an emotion or impulse is redirected from its original object to another because expressing it directly would be too distressing. This mechanism allows emotions to be released in a less dangerous or socially acceptable direction. For example, someone frustrated with their boss might take out their frustration by yelling at a family member or hitting a pillow. In this case, it is a defense mechanism where the anger is displaced to another person or object.

• Size: Decreasing, displaced.
• Shape: Threadlike writing.
• Pressure: Heavy writing.
• Reflex Letters: Flattened ovals.

Reaction Formation

Reaction formation involves substituting an emotion or impulse with its opposite. It is behaving in an exaggeratedly opposite way to the original impulse. Those who greatly fear their aggressive emotions tend to use reaction formations to protect themselves from what might feel dangerously uncontrollable. For example, turning hate into love, stinginess into generosity, or extreme cleanliness into order.

• Size: Large writing.
• Shape: Calligraphic, curved writing.
• Slant: Reversed.
• Continuity: Regressive writing.
• Signature: Lack of coherence between signature and text.

Isolation

Isolation involves separating emotion and affect from painful thoughts or memories, expressing them without emotional charge. It is common in obsessive neurosis. An intolerable idea is separated from the emotions it produces, remaining in consciousness in a weakened form. For example, recounting a traumatic event like a death or accident with normality, as if it were insignificant. This “emotional anesthesia” can be useful in professions like surgery.

• Order/ layout Spaced writing.
• Size: Small, contained writing.
• Shape: Angular writing.
• Continuity: Letters close together, lapses in cohesion.
• Gestures: Loops.
• Reflex Letters: “s” closed at the bottom.
• Signature: To the left, separated from the text, small, enclosed by a flourish.

Undoing

Undoing involves performing a specific act to nullify or compensate for a painful emotion (usually guilt or shame) by using contradictory behaviors at successive moments. It is common in obsessive-compulsive disorders. The obsessive person often performs compulsive rituals to nullify the feared destructive effects. The second positive behavior tries to magically nullify the true feeling that appeared reflected in the first to “undo” it as if nothing had happened.

An individual who feels they are harming another person might try to compensate by treating them excessively well in a compulsive manner.

• Slant: Uneven writing.
• Pressure: Presence of retouches.
• Continuity: Regressive, uneven writing.
• Reflex Letters: Closed ovals, flattened ovals.
• Signature: Difference between signature and text.

Projection

Projection involves attributing to others (people or objects) what is actually one’s own. This mechanism tends to distort the perception of others. It is the process by which what is inside is interpreted as coming from outside and not recognized as one’s own. For example, one gets angry with their brother, but the Superego says that is unacceptable. The problem is resolved by thinking, “He is angry with me.”

• Order: Advanced points and accents.
• Size: Overraised writing.
• Direction: Rigid horizontal writing.
• Pressure: Variations in vertical and horizontal pressure.
• Reflex Letters: Descending crossbars on “t”, advanced crossbars, angular downstrokes.

Introjection

Introjection is the psychological process by which a person incorporates into their internal system beliefs, patterns, or qualities of others or the social context as if they were their own. From childhood, behavior patterns, norms, values, and prejudices transmitted by parents, institutions, and religions are incorporated from the external world. This is done unconsciously and forms the basis of the Superego. In its more problematic forms, it can result in identification with the aggressor. For example, we internalize ethical or moral norms that are indoctrinated into us. “In life, you have to get married and have children,” and without questioning it, these beliefs are taken as real, leaving aside one’s own desires and needs.

• Order: Concentrated writing, small left margin.
• Size: Small writing.
• Shape: Rounded, garlanded writing.
• Slant: Inclined.
• Pressure: Light.
• Reflex Letters: Open ovals.

Turning Against Oneself

This defense mechanism involves directing negative emotions, impulses, or thoughts towards oneself instead of others. This can manifest as excessive self-criticism, self-harm, self-loathing, or even self-destructive behavior. It is a way to manage internal distress or guilt by internalizing it and directing it towards oneself rather than expressing it outwardly towards others or objects. Instead of hitting someone else, the person hits themselves or an object.

• Shape: Angular writing.
• Gesture: Hooks, regressive endings.
• Reflex Letters: Regressive, pointed crossbars on “t”, punctured ovals.

Denial

To defend or protect oneself from an unpleasant reality despite its evidence, one denies or rejects it. Denial involves refusing to accept that something is happening, based on the belief, “If I don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t happen.” Freud stated that what is denied is affirmed. “It’s not that I didn’t want to come, it just got late.” If told they have few days to live, the reaction would be, “It can’t be; there must be a mistake in the results.” Its roots lie in the early egocentric stages of development where everything that is, and is not, revolves around oneself.

• Order: Increasing left margin, lack of punctuation, predominance of white space over text.
• Size: Low writing.
• Shape: Arched, threadlike writing.
• Pressure: Firm.
• Gesture: Regressive and short endings.
• Reflex Letters: High crossbars on “t”, closed ovals with loops.
• Signature: Illegible.

Rationalization

Rationalization involves unconsciously creating reasons to justify or cover the true reason for a behavior or act that would be experienced as conflicting. For example, a person’s child commits a crime of fraud, and the father justifies it by saying, “His partner led him astray; from the start, I knew that man was not good for him.” He cannot accept his child’s responsibility. This defense allows one to accept the situation with less resentment.

• Order: Clear writing.
• Size: Overraised, tall writing.
• Shape: Threadlike, simplified writing.
• Pressure: Firm.

Sublimation

Sublimation involves finding a satisfying way to channel impulses that cannot be expressed socially into constructive, creative activities. It allows the release of the impulse, displaced and transformed, instead of struggling against it. Aggressiveness can be sublimated by practicing or watching sports like boxing.

• Order: Proportioned, good graphic space management.
• Size: Small, tall writing.
• Shape: Simplified, sober, original.
• Speed: Steady writing.
• Direction: Ascending writing.
• Pressure: Light.
• Continuity: Evolved, progressive writing.
• Gesture: Ascending endings.
• Signature: Well-formed, minimal flourish.

All writing commonly involves progressive (forward) and regressive (backward) movements. When we write, depending on our personal characteristics, there may be a balance between these progressive and regressive movements, or one of them may prevail over the other.

What Progressive and Regressive Writing Looks Like

Western writing starts from the left edge of the page and progresses towards the right edge. It moves from regression (from the past) towards the future. There are natural strokes in some letters that are drawn from left to right, such as the bars of the letter “t.”

Progressive writing

Progressive writing consists of movements that spontaneously and effortlessly go forward, to the right, and upwards on the paper. These movements contribute to the fluency and ease in writing.

Healthy writing is composed of progressive movements that start in the subject’s present towards the future reality.

Regressive writing

On the other hand, any regressive movement that is not natural to the letter indicates a pause and the individual’s return to their memories, their lived experiences, and their inner reality.

In regressive writing, the movements that form the letters, which should normally advance to the right, return, veering to the left and downward, towards the self. The predominance of letters with a regressive direction indicates the need to take refuge in the past to distance oneself from the current reality, closing off communication to the new and blocking spontaneity.

These movements can be complicated as they disrupt the natural flow of writing.

The degree of progression and regression in writing provides the opportunity to explore:

• How a person relates to the world.
• The ability or difficulty they have in communication.
• The level of determination or indecision in their actions.

Signs of Progressive Writing

Rounded writing, connected writing, right-slanting script, loops, a well-covered right margin, and simple forms are signs that reflect progressive writing.

How to interpret progressive writing Writing

Progressive writing is understood as an expression of the need to establish physical, emotional, and spiritual connections. It indicates an open, spontaneous, frank, and sympathetic attitude. It also reflects a drive to understand issues that affect society at large. In this type of writing, interest in people and external matters tends to outweigh concerns about family or personal issues.

From a negative perspective, it indicates the absence of shyness and susceptibility to influence. When accompanied by narrow, hurried, or extensive writing, it suggests a tendency to avoid or escape from personal problems.

With angular, forceful, disorderly, and clustered writing, it indicates that emotions are not well managed, and the individual may have an explosive character, irritability, violence, and capricious tendencies.

When conducting an initial evaluation of handwriting, the graphologist identifies signs of regression. For example, t’ bars that don’t cross the stem and remain on the left side, a left margin that advances and then returns to the left edge of the paper, strokes or additions to letters after the writing is finished, among others. Each manifestation of regression implies a defense mechanism that obstructs the natural flow and growth, limiting the effectiveness of the individual’s resources.

Excessive presence of regressive movements or gestures in handwriting indicates that the person’s decision-making capacity and ability to advance are hindered or constrained for some reason. Consequently, the individual faces difficulties in fluidly communicating their thoughts and feelings.

Behaviors during Regression

A notable aspect is the emergence of behaviors and attitudes reminiscent of childhood. For example, Freud believed that nail-biting and smoking were indications of being stuck in the oral stage of development. This regression could also manifest in actions related to eating and speech. Staying in the anal stage could lead to a compulsive inclination toward order or disorder, hoarding, and extreme greed. On the other hand, conversion hysteria would be considered a characteristic of regression to the phallic stage.

Now, let’s examine the graphological signs associated with regression. Identifying these specific signs allows us to understand in which areas of the individual’s personality they may be experiencing the greatest difficulties in expressing themselves. These areas include emotions (middle zone), thoughts (upper zone), and willpower (lower zone) to carry out actions.

Indicators of Regression in Handwriting with examples

In the upper zone: The “t”- bars behind the sterm (that do not energetically cross the stem), which can also be in a loop. These are signs of indecision and fear of confronting reality.

Capital letters: Isolated and closed by regressive movements.

Loops and curls: Letters forming excessive loops and curls can be interpreted as an attempt to remain trapped in old thought patterns or behaviors.

Signature on the left: Positioned away from the text and on the left side of the page instead of the right margin indicates isolation with a regressive attitude. Psychological immaturity. When faced with minor issues, the individual reacts with childish behavior. It blocks contact with reality due to insurmountable obstacles. It can also be interpreted as social or professional disinterest.

Ovals with small concentric loops.

Ornaments: Sometimes reflect inferiority complexes compensated for by excessive pride or a desire for recognition.

I’s with i’s with circles (instead of dots) .

Arches in the middle zone: Especially in “m,” “n,” “u,” some capital letters, and t-bars. In the middle zone, the arch is interpreted as a lack of candor, mistrust, and reserve in interactions with the world. In their relations with their surroundings, the individual adopts an artificial and proud attitude, needing admiration. They cling to their ideas and reject everything new.

The upper part of the letters is related to cognitive processes, intellectual functions, thinking, fantasy life, aspirations, and the ability to control impulses and instincts.

Arches or hooks to the left in the upper zone, in a very artificial manner, are interpreted as subjectivity and stubbornness in how they conceive and interpret reality. Ruminating thoughts about oneself, distancing from reality, and seeking refuge in fantasies.

Absence of the left margin or a regressive left margin. If the writing tends to shift towards the left margin of the page, it can be interpreted that the person feels trapped in the past or has difficulty moving forward into the future.

A wide right margin, when combined with other regressive signs, must be carefully considered. This implies a tendency towards social isolation, amplified by the self-enclosure in one’s own thoughts and fantasies.

Fragmentations in the lower zone. The disconnection between the oval and the limb marks a desire to conceal emotions, difficulty in connecting with true desires and needs, hypersensitivity. It is observed in individuals from conflicted families. The individual may immerse themselves in their fantasy life, hindering emotional development and the ability to open up to new environments and people.

Torsions: (Twists) Strokes of letters or lines that should be straight but have inflections or lean backward. These are signs of suffering. Dr. Resten discusses them in “Les écritures patologiques.” It’s important to examine where in the writing they are located, whether in the upper, middle, or lower part. When they appear in the upper part, they indicate that suffering has a mental component related to distressing thoughts. Possible physical issues should also be considered.

When the torsions are found in the lower areas or the limbs are blocked, they indicate the existence of unresolved conflicts and the presence of unconscious fantasies serving as a compensatory mechanism for repressed situations. It’s important to note that the lower part of writing is more associated with repressed impulses and represents the most unconscious dimension.

Breaks: The path of the stroke has interruptions, resulting in a loss of coloration in the letters. It indicates respiratory, circulatory, and nervous disturbances.

Remember that a graphologist does NOT DIAGNOSE.

From a psychological perspective, these indicators refer to obstacles in advancing and growing in life and are linked to unresolved emotional conflicts.

Indicators such as the bars of the “t” on the left side, touches, the left-located signature, and dots on “i” in the form of a circle can be interpreted as signs of indecision, fear of confronting reality, insecurity, shyness, and past conflicts that have influenced the development of self-esteem.

According to A. Vels, “The artist and the neurotic may adopt these childish modes of behavior to escape from reality and the anxiety of frustration.”

Descending, tight, disjointed, restrained, inverted, and suspended writing also relates to regression.

I remind you, as always, that signs are interpreted within a context. Never take an isolated sign.

Blessed be!

Hello friends! Today, I invite you to delve into the realm of lies and dishonesty within handwriting. Detecting lack of authenticity in handwriting isn’t a straightforward task, but it’s achievable.

In this article, we will plunge into the intriguing world of graphology to uncover how strokes can reveal hidden secrets. Specifically, we will explore how graphology becomes a revealing tool, unraveling the mysteries of lies and dishonesty concealed within each handwritten script.

Being honest means behaving and communicating sincerely and ethically. It involves telling the truth, being consistent between words and actions, being transparent, and taking responsibility for the consequences. It’s not just about being honest with others but also about being honest with yourself.

Graphology unmasks the lie: Levels of dishonesty through Handwriting Analysis

Honesty is one of the most sought-after skills when hiring for a job or in personal connections. It represents a fundamental value in people, work teams and organizations, directly impacting productivity at both an individual and collective level. It involves acknowledging mistakes, seeking help when necessary, and collaborating as a team without claiming individual achievements. Honest people establish strong ties with the company, are trustworthy with sensitive information, and avoid actions that could be harmful. This value, ingrained in all employees, facilitates the construction of strong and productive teams.

Handwriting Analysis and Deceit

Revealing secrets: graphology reveals levels of dishonesty and lies in handwriting

Dishonesty and lies, like many things, exist on a spectrum. Let’s go from the least intense to the most serious. Telling lies can happen without bad intentions, like when someone asks you if you like her new car and you say it without being completely honest. This represents the mildest form of lying. Then there is the compulsive liar. Let’s delve into this topic.

People who lie seek to hide or disguise who they really are. They avoid revealing their true essence. But you can feel its energy and gain a deep understanding of those around you.

Beyond Words: The Depth of Dishonesty revealed in Handwritten Script

Tell apart the social liar from the pathological liar. Unveiling the Motivations Behind Lies: Handwriting Insights into Natural and Pathological Liars  Handwriting.

It’s interesting to discover why those who lie, lie.

The Natural-Social Liar

The most common liar is the natural-social liar who lies to feel more comfortable in social settings. They may falsify or exaggerate their achievements or experiences to impress others or maintain a positive image. Alternatively, they might downplay problems or difficulties to prevent others from worrying about them. Their intention is not to cause harm or deceive maliciously but to use lying as a strategy to maintain superficial harmony in their social relationships.

There are indicators in handwriting (excessive loops in certain letters, exaggerated uppercase letters, larger handwriting) that suggest a lack of spontaneity in communication. On the other hand, when lying is by omission or out of cowardice, it is accompanied by signs of weakness, such as weak pressure, small handwriting, a signature to the left of the text, or a small signature wrapped within the rubric.

The Pathological Liar

The pathological liar describes someone with a persistent and compulsive tendency to lie constantly without an apparent motive or clear logic. The inclination towards compulsive lying generally constitutes a central element of their personality and behavior.

Pathological liars may invent entirely fictional stories or significantly exaggerate facts. The motives behind a pathological liar’s behavior are usually complex mechanisms. They include psychological factors such as the pursuit of attention, the desire to feel important, or the personal satisfaction they derive from deceiving others. They often lie simply out of habit and may be related to disorders such as antisocial personality disorder (also known as sociopathic personality disorder) or narcissistic personality disorder. These disorders are associated with a lack of empathy, impulsivity, and a tendency to manipulate others.

Dishonesty Indicators: Graphological Signs of Dishonesty

In handwriting, signs of artificiality and excessive embellishments can be found, such as inflated upper zones (indicating an exaggerated sense of morality) and inflated lower zones (indicating exaggerated desires). Slow handwriting may indicate potential culprits attempting to disguise and conceal; someone who lies frequently and calculatedly.

Here are the significant traits to analyze. You’ll find each of them with images and examples as indicated in each case.

Decoding Deception: Graphology’s Exploration of Dishonesty Levels in Handwriting

It’s impossible to fully guarantee a person’s reliability. Always remember that if a sample contains one or two of these traits, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is dishonest. These indicators should be considered along with the rest of the aspects. Despite the lack of absolute certainty, graphology is a tool that reveals signs enabling the identification of the power of honesty and multiple indications of falsehood.

Main Signs of dishonesty in handwriting

The main signs that constitute the general negative level are:

1. Confused writing: Disorder, confusion, illegibility, inequalities in spacing and movement. Certain letters or parts of letters invade the space in the lines above or below.
2. Disproportions and inequalities in dimension, pressure, direction of lines or parts of letters. Artificial writing of unique shapes: Can be interpreted from snobbery and exhibitionism to concealment and dissimulation.
3. Regressive movements, sinuous lines, ring-shaped ovals, bottom-closed ovals, filiform writing. Regressions, inverted inclination: Read also: Slant of writing.

It is important to remember that these traits are not definitive evidence of a person’s dishonesty. However, some traits that have been associated with dishonesty in handwriting are as follows:

General traits of dishonesty in handwriting:

• Illegible handwriting will indicate a lack of transparency and sincerity, the need to intrigue or generate doubts, and a lack of moral sense that leads to evading responsibilities. Illegibility due to letter deformation will mark the hiding of the true personality with the intention to conceal or cover up, which can be caused by feelings of guilt, lack of adaptation, or insecurity.
• Ovals with double closure or closure from below following the clock hands in adults: Excessive reserve, concealment. Closed or multi-layered ovals that are excessively closed or have multiple strokes may suggest a desire to conceal information or a reserved attitude. See graphology of the letter “a” the letter of sincerity.
• Thread-like writing: Diplomacy, dissimulation, concealment. Filiform writing will indicate an evasive self. The tendency to surround things with an aura of mystery. Opportunistic intelligence. The need to intrigue or create doubt. The lack of moral sense that leads to avoiding responsibilities. The tendency to not always tell the truth. It will reflect insincerity, lies, ambiguity, and simulated adaptation. It will be a sign of questionable trust and adaptation according to circumstances, also pointing to an individual who skillfully can penetrate and grasp the needs of others and deceive them, commonly found in scammers and forgers. It will also indicate a tendency to evade responsibilities. Intentional filiform endings within the context of slow handwriting will indicate cunning, evasion, and lies, where the inclination towards fraud, hypocrisy, disguise, and deception will be a permanent mode of operation. It will denote an individual who promises things they know they won’t grant or fulfill.

• Sinuous or serpentine writing/lines or words: Writing that exhibits exaggerated curves or undulations may reflect a tendency to hide information, lie, be cunning, false, or hypocritical. Lack of moral firmness, versatility, impressionability.
• Tracings of artificial or very regular shapes. Large inflations, mainly curved: Mythomania, desire to grab attention. It should be corroborated if it appears in humps or in descenders.
• Excessive use of arches: Excessive arched writing will indicate a tendency towards concealment, hiding, and simulation, reflecting the concealment of true personality and insincerity. Here, the predisposition to lies and skillful management of appearances play an important role in deceit, fraud, or scams. Hypocritical kindness, concealment, simulation, selfishness, and cynicism will be other characteristics of this sign. It also indicates a predisposition towards appropriation and hoarding. Accentuated arches towards the end of words. The arch is a regressive movement: Ability to feign or disguise.
• Exaggerations, especially in capital letters.
• Sudden decreases in size. Last letters of the word illegible or replaced by a dash. Size reductions or gladiolus-shaped writing: They may indicate skills for persuading, convincing, deceiving, and pretending. Variable size of letters within the same word: See dimension.

• Illegible or unclear signature: A signature that cannot be read or is unclear can be interpreted as a lack of transparency or an intention to conceal one’s true identity. Read in Signature.

• Negative differences between signature and text: When there is an evident contradiction between the writing style of the text and the signature, it may suggest a lack of integrity or an intention to deceive. It is necessary to rule out professions in which the individual must sign many documents per day or cases of doctors who, due to tradition or haste, use filiform strokes or illegible signatures. These differences arise between the signature and the text, it indicates conflicts in personality, dissociation of behavior, discordance between desires and decisions. Continue reading in the section: The SIGNATURE in Graphology.

Decoding Deception: Graphology’s Exploration of dishonesty Levels in Handwriting

It’s impossible to fully guarantee a person’s reliability. Always remember that if a sample contains one or two of these traits, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is dishonest. These indicators should be considered along with the rest of the aspects. Despite the lack of absolute certainty, graphology is a tool that reveals signs enabling the identification of the power of honesty and multiple indications of falsehood.

It is important to bear in mind that these traits are only indicative and should not be used as conclusive proof of a person’s dishonesty. They should be compared with other tests and assessments.

#1 Reason

When I talk about “beautiful handwriting,” I mean excessively perfect and controlled writing. This type of writing or calligraphy is characterized by being slow and having a rigid rhythm. Slow-paced writing reflects caution and reflection, while rigidity indicates inhibition and fear.

Reasons why “good handwriting” isn’t really good

#2 Reason

Excessive control can also indicate a desire to have everything under control to prevent traumatic experiences from the past from recurring. While this can be a valid response to trauma, it can lead to excessive self-control and control over others.

#3 Reason

Another characteristic of “calligraphic handwriting” or perfect writing is the lack of variation. When handwriting varies according to the situation or mood, it is considered normal, as it is deeply connected to our body and mind. Therefore, it should fluctuate with our emotional state. When handwritten writing lacks this variation, it could indicate that certain emotions are being repressed.

“Is it healthy to write cute?”

#4 Reason

Another sign of emotional control can be observed by looking at the lines or baseline direction of the letters. If the line is straight as if drawn with a ruler, without gentle waves, it is an indication that emotions are being controlled. It takes a lot of self-control to write in a straight line!

This can be interpreted as an excessive need to take care of oneself and take precautions. While taking a certain degree of precaution is understandable and healthy, excess can limit our confidence in others and even in ourselves. It can affect our decision-making and relationships.

#5 Reason

Excessively perfect and elaborate writing can indicate that something is being hidden. Due to the need for control and emotional repression, these individuals tend to conceal things. We all have our private matters, but in these cases, we don’t know if insignificant issues are being hidden due to insecurity or something important.

#6 Reason

Handwriting may tend to emphasize either shape or speed. More shape means less speed, and more speed means less form. Both cases are not inherently good or bad. The issue arises when they are extreme.

Excessively perfect writing places an excessive emphasis on shape. It is interpreted as excessive concern for appearances and a desire to please others. It relies too much on others’ opinions, wasting energy, which in turn undermines confidence in one’s own judgment.

#7 Reason

It’s also important to analyze the signature of someone who writes too perfectly. The signature may be excessively elaborate or not.

The signature reflects the writer’s identity. If a signature lacks embellishments and is similar to the individual’s regular writing, it indicates that the person is authentic and has nothing to hide. It is very likely that this person is the same in public and in private. In contrast, overly elaborate signatures make exceptions when it comes to celebrities and artists, as they often represent how they wish to be seen, regardless of whether they are authentic or not.

As I mentioned in another post, both the handwriting in a text and the signature should be legible, clear, neither too large nor too small, and maintain a certain balance between curves and angles, among other things.

#Reason 8

Letters with pronounced arcs indicate concealment and overcompensation. They attach more importance to appearances. Protection is sought out of distrust and reserve.

#9 Reason

The calligraphic writing, especially if it is regular, careful, monotonous, and constant, can conceal neuroses, block natural tendencies, and repressions. There is a lack of dynamism and spontaneity. It is very possible that those who write like this identify with their professional role, prestige, and social biases. When this identification becomes a habit, it is useless to look behind the “mask.”

It’s important to remember that these indicators can vary and should be considered within the context and in conjunction with other traits. If you identify with any of these signs in your handwriting, don’t feel bad; on the contrary, you can work on them.

Thank you, and I hope you continue to follow the blog to keep learning!

What are blank spaces?

In a text, there are blank spaces between words, between letters, in the margins, and there are also spaces that appear blank within the text. These masses of blank spaces are areas of unconscious omission. Out of the four margins, especially the top and left margins, are considered the most “conscious of all”.

Affective Needs in Handwriting Analysis

Blank spaces are related to the affective needs of human beings. Within the so-called vital needs is the function of nourishment. Without food, there is no life. Therefore, affective needs are as important as the food and air we breathe. We cannot do without food or the affection of other human beings to achieve physical and mental well-being.

In reality, not everyone needs the same things. Dietary requirements, like the need for affection, differ for each individual. Eating disorders (such as anorexia and bulimia) demonstrate that there is an intimate relationship between food and affection. Let’s explore this topic applied to graphology.

The need and intensity of affection are related to each person’s history and personality structure. Human beings need to feel accepted, understood, respected, recognized, and listened to. Depending on how each individual “lives” these needs, they will manifest the degree of independence or dependence on others. This is reflected in their way of writing.

What is the “expected” Spacing in Writing?

The module indicates:

• The normal space from letter to letter within a word should be equal to the width of the ovals in the letters a, o, g, d. The spacing between letters indicates affective needs and the degree of dependence in intimate relationships.

• The normal space between words should be equivalent to the width of the letter m. This space between words indicates how we connect with our non-familiar or intimate daily environment.

• The normal distance between lines should be equal to three times the height of the letter m.

IMPORTANT: In no case should the lower parts of the letters (descenders) overlap with the upper parts (ascenders) of the next line.

These “overlaps” that may appear are called “axis collisions.” When a part of a letter “invades” another from the previous or next line, it denotes the presence of some kind of conflict in the writer. As we always clarify, it is necessary to analyze in which letters it occurs, the intensity (how many times they overlap), and the graphic context.

By separating letters and words, we express our moods, fears, presence of conflicts… in short, our personality.

Classification based on spacing in a text

Writing can be classified as: Normal, spaced, or concentrated.

Normal Spacing

Normal spacing occurs when the spaces align with the module. It signifies self-control of emotions, and the need for emotional connection with others is lower.

Wide Spacing

If the space between letters is greater than the module, we say that it is spaced writing. It implies difficulty in emotionally connecting, independence, and a tendency towards isolation.

Narrow Spacing (Concentrated Writing)

Writing is considered concentrated when there is little space between the letters. The person is introverted, reserved, and has difficulty expressing their emotions.

When peculiarities appear and letters “stick” or adhere to others, overlap, or their normal connection disappears, it indicates that the person is very demanding, dependent, overly attached, and invades others’ boundaries. As we emphasize in every article, we should always consider the entirety of the graphic environment and not just isolated signs.

In this section, we present the topics in a simplified manner that those interested in Graphology should know to understand the rest.

Shape of Blank Spaces in Text with Meaning

Sometimes, the blank spaces in a written text take on different shapes. Gaps may occur that form columns of two or three lines. They reveal the attitude of closeness or distance towards others, the external world, and the future. When this is repeated several times in different directions, they are referred to by various names: knives, ghosts, bags, waterfalls, chimneys, and they are highly valuable for graphological analysis.

Knife-Shaped Blank Spaces

They refer to the margins within the text that occur because the space between words is larger than the module. They extend three lines downward, forming diagonal columns known as knives or chimneys. They are interpreted as signs of anxiety, restlessness, insecurity, which may be transient. In this case, the symbolism of Max Pulver’s space also applies.

• When they point to the left, the person feels distressed, suffers, becomes depressed, and fails to overcome the conflict, turning inward. • On the other hand, if the chimneys or knives point to the right, it means that the person relies on their environment and friendships, finding a satisfactory solution to the conflict.

• When the blank spaces in the text are vertical, the conflict may be internal.

Please note that while graphology can provide insights, it is not a scientifically validated method and should be approached with caution.

Blank Spaces in the Form of “Bags”

They are called bags when the spaces repeat for more than three lines, cascading within the text. They are interpreted as deep subconscious distress. When they occur with slow, monotonous, and vertical writing, they are associated with a tendency towards obsessive neurosis. We will continue to delve into these topics in articles on graphopathology.

Blank Spaces in the Form of “Ghosts”

They are similar to bags but appear at the edges, and their meaning depends on their specific location.

• When they are in the right margin at the end of the lines, resembling a bite, they are interpreted as insecurity about the future that “paralyzes” in the face of the unknown.

• When they appear at the top of the text, the insecurity is conscious. They symbolize fear and anxiety about a decision to be made.

• In contrast, when they appear at the bottom, the fear is unconscious, related to something that cannot be achieved.

This concludes the article on blank spaces in graphology and affective needs. Keep browsing this website to learn more about Tips for a positive signature, and the meaning of slanted handwriting.

Round letters are clearly noticed when analyzing the middle zone of a writing. For those who need to familiarize themselves with the subject, we invite you to read the Basic Graphology article where we present a very simple introduction to handwriting analysis. This includes the zones of writing, the parts of the letters, and what each one symbolizes.

Interpreting the writing as an integrated “whole”, as a “Gestalt”. This German term means “the whole”. Gestalt graphology analyzes the text as a photograph or a painting. When we look at a photo, we observe the entire image and do not focus on particular elements.

Graphology of Round Letters. It’s Meaning

In round letters, the shape and the ovals “closure” are particularly analyzed. Whether they are round, angular, flattened or other shapes, and the “closure” if they are open or closed. And if they have any distinctive detail that sets them apart or catches attention.

The ovals are the reference for the middle zone of the writing. They symbolically represents the ego´s writer and their affectivity.

What is Emotional Dependency?

Dependency is the lack of autonomy. It is a symptom of immaturity that characterizes individuals who need others satisfy them. Dependence can be economic, labor, professional, or emotional. The emotionally dependent person needs to feel appreciation, support, or the presence of others.

What is Autonomy

Autonomy means “governing oneself”. Is the ability to be governed by the laws dictated by one’s own conscience. To have emotionally become independent.

It is almost impossible to be an autonomous person when the approval of another is needed to act in life. A weak “self” loses its own identity and the awareness that it is different from the other. There are many emotionally dependent individuals on their partner. They mimic to such an extent that they lose their own identity, becoming another person without realizing it. They change everything to please that other person so that the other person does not leave. They modify the affective self or the set of self-referential information that identifies and differentiates them from others.

Autonomy vs dependency

In adult human beings, emotional dependency generates a degree of symbiosis in order to obtain constant approval and acceptance. Protection is requested as if they were a child. Although this situation may be transitory, it is a pattern in the way of life that repeats throughout existence and in all established relationships with different people.

There are many human beings who behave like children. Unable to BE. Those who suffer from emotional dependency cannot conceive of life without their romantic partner and fear being alone. They usually relate to dominant, narcissistic people who cause anything from psychological abuse to submission and physical abuse. People affected by emotional dependency sometimes recognize that they suffer from contempt but cannot free themselves and even apologize to avoid upsetting their partner or to prevent abandonment.

Relationship between Round Letters and Emotional Dependency

What does writing in round letters mean?

P. Foglia in his work “Grafología General” quotes Solange Pellat: “All egocentric, and enveloping movements are towards the Self.”

The Monigote: Oral Stage

Round letters are related to the first stage of psychosexual development: the oral stage. The first representation of the “self” that the child makes is a circle to which he adds hands, feet, eyes, mouth: it is called in spanish the “monigote.” During the evolution, the child discovers the external world through the moutha and the mother’s breast. It is called the oral stage and finds pleasure in sucking, biting. According to how this stage is overcome, the character that person acquires will be determined. S. Freud explains in his theory that individuals who remain “fixed” in the oral stage will have infantile characteristics of emotional dependency. Psychoanalytic theory speaks of fixations on the different stages of psychosexual development that are reflected in the subject’s handwriting.

What are the fixations in emotional development stages?

You should know that not all stages of development are always traversed and overcome with the same ease. Sometimes, some people are permanently delayed in those first stages. When the needs of the child during the first stage or oral stage are not satisfied and are repressed or there are events that leave traces, it marks particular traits in their personality. Fixation is the exaggerated attachment to people or objects that leads to a delay in the emotional development of the individual.

Libido is an energy that leads us to the pursuit of pleasure. When the libido stops at certain erogenous zones, it is called fixation. When the subject stops at stages of development or forms of satisfaction experienced in the past, their evolution and development are impeded. This libidinal energy that has been fixed is repressed, giving rise to regression. For Freud, fixations can occur due to specific events such as trauma, family influences, or a certain inability of the subject to abandon a stage in which they found satisfaction. It may be due to a lack of confidence that the new stage will bring other sources of pleasure or satisfaction.

Signs of Emotional Dependency in Handwriting

The emotional dependence that persists in adult life causing difficulties in establishing new bonds is reflected in the writing. The round letters show emotional dependency in those who have difficulties in making decisions. The person, instead of relying on their own initiatives when facing situations, demands as if they were a child. They are very possessive, submissive beings and need the approval of others.

The round letters are not only observed in subjects who satisfy their existential emptiness with “gastronomic pleasures” or vices such as alcohol and tobacco. It also manifests itself in the need to feel recognized, flattered and socially important. Emotional dependency is evidenced in writing as passive or active depending on when fixation occurred. In the first oral phase (sucking phase) or in the second oral phase (sadistic or cannibalistic phase). In the cases in which the text corresponds to subjects of an active oral nature, round letters “coexist” with aggressive features (such as thrown endings, steely, disproportion).

Need for Acceptance and Attached Letters

On the other hand, when we are dealing with personalities of a passive oral nature, we will find adjoining letters, little space between words, low underworld.

This is evident in those people who need the recognition of others. They crave to be treated like children, require acceptance from others, and are extremely sensitive subjects. In general, they repress aggressiveness and find it difficult to express what they dislike, either due to fear of rejection or need for acceptance.

Round letters: Positive side

The round letters express stability of mind in the presence of unforeseen events. They show good development of perception that favors memory, a tendency to low emotionality, pay attention to image and appearances.

They reflect the ability to harmonize the useful with the pleasant and their own interests with those of others, avoiding conflicts. Disposition to find the common benefit in associations. The subject avoids risks that would expose him to losing his standard of living.

Round Letters and Temperament

According to Augusto Vels in the “Dictionary of Graphology and Related Psychological Terms” he describes that the round letters associated with a slow rhythm are linked to the lymphatic temperament. They show passive adaptability, they are sociable personalities but not very demonstrative, restful, calm and do not show enthusiasm or ambition.

There are other graphic variables that confirm aspects of the linking modality of the writer.

The dependency according to Vels is reflected in: Very inclined writing, low (capital letters and “t” bars), calligraphic writing, careful, orderly, descending, grouped (separate capital letters); delayed, paused or slow, vacant, indecisive. Emotional dependence is analyzed in the treatment of ovals and also in the spacing between letters and between words.

What are Attached Letters?

According to A, Vels in “Graphology from A to Z“, “the attached ones affect the spacing between letters, causing adhesions or hooks between letter and letter, in some cases the letters are mounted or superimposed on each other, without necessarily being a tight writing since the width of the letters can be normal or even greater.

This sign is characteristic of adolescence, it is linked to the regression of movements that imposes a brake by reservation, mistrust. It indicates a symbiotic tendency, a tendency to orality, affective dependence, even economic parasitism. This is reinforced if the writing is round, soft and wide”.

Difference between Round letters and rounded writing

There is a difference between round letters, rounded script and curvy script. Vels describes a beautiful symbolic comparison between the round and rounded letters with the movements of the planet earth (rotation and translation). The rotation movement is of the earth on its axis, on itself, it does not go forward but goes backwards, it returns to the beginning as in the round letters. Unlike the movement of translation, which is “oval”, supposes displacement and advance from the I to the You, or towards the object.

The round letters carry out a movement around itself, while in the rounded writing there is a progressive forward movement that goes from the “I towards the others”.

From this symbolic comparison, meanings can be inferred around the orientation of desires and affective bonding:

1. The “egocentric” around the body itself, its needs in round writing.

2. The direction to the “object” in round or oval writing.

The Rounded Handwriting

Rounded writing is more agile and active than round writing. It implies movement towards the “love object”. In childhood this love object is represented by the mother or the father. In adulthood by a person of the opposite sex (once the Oedipus complex has been overcome). This progressive movement also translates to the work and professional fields. The subject is mobilized towards goals of achievement in the outside world expressing desires for communication, participation and reception.

How do you analyze rounded writing from the positive side?

It is framed as a progressive handwriting that transmits the adaptation of the subject without difficulties or impediments and implies good health. The subject manages to satisfy his needs without clashes between what he wants and the possibilities that reality presents him. This writing is characterized by presenting a rhythm that is preserved within the “methodical inequality” (Moretti).

How to Interprete Rounded Letters

Pleasant character, sympathy, empathy, benevolence, imagination, taste for aesthetics and art. Rounded writing when there is good graphic dynamism “methodical inequality”, is associated with optimism, joy of living, with grace, seduction.

According to Augusto Vels “Round writing is more introjective than extrajective”. “The rounded script is more extrajective than introjective.”

Graphology: Curved Writing

Differences between Round Letters and Curved Writing

Curvilinear writing is called writing whose normal angles in the letters adopt a curvilinear shape. The curve symbolizes adaptation, communication, affability, empathy, complacency. The curve analyzed from the movement is characterized by an easy line that slides and flows spontaneously towards the “object”. He “moves” towards others out of a need for tenderness, for communication, for affective identification, in search of affinities. Adaptation is a sign of harmony and psychic balance.

The Dark Side of the Curve

The curve can also be selfish and respond to a need of the subject to feel the center of all interest and attention. Giving rise to selfishness, self-centeredness, narcissism. Two types of curve are distinguished:

1. Round and slow curve.
2. Oval curve.

The curved writing reflects: union, love, pleasure, affability, empathy, although the intention may be hoarding and selfish.

Here ends this article on Round Letters and Emotional Dependence. Stay on this website to learn more about Graphology. Share it with your friends if you find it useful.

Source: A. Vels in “Graphology from A to Z”. Augusto Vels, “Dictionary of Graphology and related Psychological terms”, P. Foglia, “General Graphology Vol II”.

Principio del formulario

Hidden Diseases in Handwriting

Handwriting is a motor skill that we tend to lose when neurologic disorders appear. Parkinson disease is an example, since investigators have done research and have determined that even though clinical evaluation is carried out for diagnosis, it is possible to detect precisely some early signs of this disease through measurement of handwriting speed and pressure. Depression, among many other psychological disorders, is quickly detected through handwriting analysis.

Graphopathology, is the branch of graphology that studies the alterations produced in graphisms due to psychological or physical disturbances, latent or evident, permanent or temporary. It detects alterations of the biopsychosocial states that are expressed in handwriting.

According to Max Pulver “Psychological and spiritual essential traits, as well as physiological processes, influence handwriting’’.
We remind that graphologists must not diagnose since he is not a doctor, but he can collaborate with professionals to the early detection of prodromal symptoms, diseased, contribute to prevention and treatment follow-up.

Also read: Graphotherapy: Change your Handwriting

Graphopathology: Prodromal Symptoms

Graphopathology: What are Prodromal Symptoms?

A lot is said about prodromal symptoms in graphopathology. To graphopathology, the sources of information are the strokes and the zone where the alterations are produced.
Prodromal symptoms are the group of graphical symptoms that precede the development of a disease. Each pathology has a group of prodromal symptoms that characterize it.

In order to understand graphopathology, it is essential to recognize the graphical
environment, the positive and negative senses of the texts that are provided for analysis
(which is not the mere sum of signs). We must achieve the integral interpretation of the
personality of the writer. The fact that erroneous strokes appear or maladjustments exist
between the shape, space and movement of the graphical wave, means the lack of
concordance between the vital functions of the individuals.

What is the Graphic Environment in Handwriting?

Due to the fact that we are ambivalent beings by nature, that we think in terms of good-bad, health-illness, self-control -impulsiveness, our tendency to find the equilibrium in this dual world is also reflected in writing.
Graphical environment is the overall appreciation of a writing. The first impression that impact us in the text altogether. The graphical environment may be positive or negative according to the characteristics that cover it.
A writing is healthy or normal when the graphical environment is positive and the graphical aspects are in harmony.
The disequilibrium between space, shape and movement can reveal emotional immatureness or absence of health in the writing.

Graphopathology: Symptoms of Disease in Writing

The presence of physical or psychological illness affects the mobility of the individual, causing, as a result, the presence of faulty strokes and movements, with alterations in the distribution of graphical space and order, among others.
It is important to recall that these traits must not be studied in isolation, but to pay
attention to the whole, to alterations in order, dispositions of margins, pressure, pace,
regularity, line spacing, words, presence of crashes between edges, among others. One symptom in isolation does not reveal anything.

Handwriting Analysis and Health

With the goal of getting started in this topic of Graphopathology, we shall describe a few pathological graphical traits that denote illness.

• Torsion (twists): Irregularity or luxation in the path of a letter or part of a letter. The
  stroke that should be straight, suffers inflections. Strokes or lines that should be straight but suffer inflections or lean backward. These are signs of suffering. Dr. Resten addresses this in “Les écritures patologiques.”
• Shake: Graphical wave that is agitated with small shakes. Movement is not
  performed in one stroke only, but which is constituted by small angles.
• Breeze: The path of the stroke is interrupted, fragmented, providing the
  sensation that the pen went over the sheet of paper without leaving ink.
• Congestion: When it shows up as ovals and curls in eyes of letters full of
  ink. Viscosity: When upper and lower extensions appear as dirty, slippery,
  wrongly delimited, soft, unclear and non-dynamic strokes.
• Fragmentation: Letters composed of two or more disconnected strokes. Its structure is divided when according to the calligraphic model it should be connected. An example is “d” and “g” in two oval strokes and upper extension, “m” lowercase in three strokes.
• Slant: Right slant movements, very inclined or unequal. Direction of lines: Descending lines
• Size: Exaggerated disproportions in the execution of letters.

• Shape: Alterations in shape, complications, exaggerated ornamentations or extravagances.
• Layout: Anomalies in the distribution of text and blank spaces (loss of sense of spatial orientation).
• Pressure: In general, illnesses that have an organic origin are manifested in alterations in graphical pressure and morphology, opposed to psychopathologies that more frequently present alterations in cohesion, dimension, spatial orientation and shape.
• Periods and accent marks: When abnormal, they may reflect memory disorders, attention and imagination.

Also read: Handwriting Analysis: Features and Traits

Positive Graphic Environment

The graphic environment is positive when we find symptoms that reveal normality and health:

• Conserved shape: It reflects conduct, uses defense mechanisms of the Ego, the relationship with the environment, the way in which the personality was structured.
• Progressive movements: Strokes influence movements that move around harmonically, without difficulties or impediments in the continuity of graphism.
• Layout: Good distribution of text and blank spaces and margins. Good spacing between lines, words and letters, without crashing edges.
• Proportion of letters: Regularity, no rigidity and uninterrupted, conserving good pace in the execution of strokes.
• Speed: Has to be medium, not excessively fast, nor excessively slow.
• Clarity: Writing must be clear and legible, without jams or viscosity.
• Pressure: Adequate pressure, relief, normal depth, firm tension, medium caliper.

The graphical symbols reflect the learning and adjustment that we achieve in our
desires and the demands of the world that surrounds us. The positive sense indicates
that we have managed to harmonize our needs or impulses with the pressures and
demands that the world presents us.

The positive sense is the degree of evolution, maturity and adjustment of the
personality and how much the environment influences this individual. When analyzing a
piece of writing it is necessary to do it in an integral way, keeping in mind it is a “whole”,
which is more important than the sum of the parts. Interpreting isolated traits does
not work but that we need to relate all those traits that we find in order to arrive to
adequate interpretations.
In order to determine the graphical environment of writing we need to take into account
whether there is equilibrium between the graphical area and the emotional maturity of
the writer.

How Does Graphopathology Work?

The maturity of the personality is translated onto writing, reflecting itself as a normal or healthy writing. This maturity of the personality or emotional maturity is the one that allows the individual to acquire new learnings and develop healthy conducts and indicates that we are moving towards the path of personal evolution.
We, human beings, count on an amount of libido energy that is accumulated until it is
released with different activities. Our life goes by between the production and
consumption of this energy constantly, which cooperates for the physical and
psychological functionalities work accordingly, allowing the liberation of internal tension.
It is essential that this tension, generated by emotions, is kept in equilibrium and within
an optimal level.

The defense mechanisms of the Ego release from our body the accumulated energy caused by emotions. When this tension increases above its optimal level or below its necessary level, the natural rhythm and balance is altered, causing excesses, disproportions, it overflows.

Graphopathology detects the ability of the ego of the individual to preserve the equilibrium of tensions and to adjust to the reality that the environment
presents him.

Defense Mechanisms of the Ego in Handwriting

What are the Defense Mechanisms of the Ego?

The defense mechanisms of the ego where proposed for the first time by Sigmund Freud (1925), but his daughter, Anna Freud (1973) was the one who took this matter deeper and who came up with the first systematic classification.

This is the end of this article about  Handwriting Analysis and Health: Graphopathology, stay on this website in order to learn more about Handwriting Analysis Signature and Handwriting Analysis: Letter S.

The act of writing is therapeutic. Through writing “we exteriorize in words”, thoughts, wishes and emotions, which we “liberate” by expressing them in the sheet of paper. We heal emotional wounds and we channel resentment. This action is often as healing or more healing than the spoken word.

Through handwriting analysis, it is possible to deduce people’s states of mind, their character, temper, skills, emotions and even their physiology and health level.

Recent neurological research demonstrates that the learning process of reading and writing produces structural changes in the brain, which increment the density of the white and grey matter.

What is Graphotherapy?

Graphotherapy or graphical re-education is a branch of graphology, whose goal is to modify the graphical gesture in a conscious way, in order to produce changes in personality at a subconscious level to improve innumerous challenges. It is a complementary tool to other disciplines such as psychology, which is based on the rational execution of universal movements, which are incorporated with repetition of graphical exercises.

How does Graphotherapy work?

The process of writing is established through a nervous circuit initiated in the left hemisphere of the brain, which sends sensorimotor signals to the hand, which executes the orders it transmits. Before starting with Graphotherapy, it is essential to carry out an exhaustive analysis of the writing in question and the strokes that are part of it.

It is possible to apply the inverted path. Acting on the brain mechanisms and revert the process of writing, modifying our customs, until they become habits, changing the information in our mind.

Also read: Graphology: What Margins in Handwriting means?

Graphotherapy’s Fundamentals

Research on certain neurological mechanisms carried out by American scientist Eric Richard Kandel, born in Vienna, 1929, have been revealing for Graphotherapy’s fundamentals. Neuronal connections are not immutable as we used to believe. Kandel emphasized the difference between neuronal plasticity and neuronal elasticity.

Neuronal elasticity implies a temporary change that goes back to the original shape when the cause that produces it is interrupted. When stimulus is applied there is no change. (In this case the stimulus is the repetition of written strokes in a methodical way).

Neuronal plasticity implies a permanent change despite the interruption of the cause. The stimulus is interrupted but the change remains. It is the existence of a cause (learning of new ways of writing), which produces a change whose improvement tends to last over time (memory).

Sigmund Freud incorporates the idea of plasticity in learning and memory mechanisms. “Experiences leave marks”. This is the basis of psychoanalysis. Due to the law of reversibility, when modifying strokes through repeated graphical exercise, change in behavior is favored, since the path from the brain to the sheet of paper is reversible.

Also read: Handwriting Analysis Chart

Graphotherapy and its Movements

Graphotherapy is based on the rational execution of the unique twelve universal movements with any part of the body that are incorporated with the repletion of graphical exercises. It allows assistance to people who have not learned to write or that belong to other cultures and write with different characters or that due to certain disability, their mobility has been affected. These repetitions work as stimulus, generating new paths of association between inter-neurons.

The twelve basic strokes or universal movements that rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise: up, down, leftwards and rightwards and get combined to execute not only letters, but all of our daily activities, from stirring a cup of coffee with a spoon to combing our hair or moving the mouse of the computer.

The tendency that each individual has to conduct themselves in one or another direction is related to symbolism of space of Max Pulver that we have mentioned in various opportunities.

Graphotherapy Tips

• Ascending movements express spiritual tendencies and they mean that we move towards what we aspire, our ideals, our ambitions to improve ourselves.
• Descending movements reveal material tendencies, physical, biological and organic (such as nutrition, physical work, sports).
• Leftward movements imply reflection, analysis, introversion, relationship with past experiences, impulses towards maternal impulses, regression towards family, the past and childish attitudes.
• Rightward movements reveal extroversion, mature and adult attitude, relationship with the environment, direction of our ongoing projects towards the future and towards desired goals.

The exercises that are performed are not the calligraphic type, but exercises where we practice shapes, movement, rhythm, pressure, inclination and the other graphical aspects, contemplating the symbolism of space of Max Pulver.

In writing, like in our daily activities, our gestures, mimic and these twelve movements are recorded. We have the possibility to analyze them through the study of the graphical aspects, shape, pressure, speed, direction, dimension, inclination, continuity and order that will provide precise and exact information about our impulses and neurological circuits that define our conduct and physiological activity.

Graphotherapy and Evolution of Treatment

Graphotherapy sessions start by taking a sample of initial writing of the analyzed individual. The profile of the personality is done and the guidelines of work are administrated, in order to apply them to strokes that are susceptible to modification.

This is one of the first tasks that involves the rehabilitation process, the challenge of working in the spatial organization of the page, reestablishing the global aspect of the graphical space in order to then change the individual characteristics.

The process is applied according to the needs of each individual and the guidelines of the modules of “writing well and writing healthy” that we describe below:

Graphotherapy Excercises

• The writing must be slightly inclined to the right. With this movement, extroversion, appropriate relationship with others and proper advance towards the future are fostered.
• Letters must be connected (except cases such as periods, accent marks, bars of letter “ñ”, inverted commas and others). With this trait, we reinforce continuity in activity, tenacity, sociability and tendency for contact and ability for summarization.
• T-bars. With this trait, we work on will and continuity of work and our business and professional areas.
• I-dots. Must never be omitted. With this, we foster attention and concentration.
• Horizontal direction of lines. With this trait, we control variations of our state of mind and mood of a person. We correct both depressive and euphoric states.
• Order/ Layout: Correct spacing between lines in the writing. Upper and lower extensions, that are the upper and lower parts of letters, must never be mixed or touch each other. With this, we develop clarity in ideas and thought.

Graphotherapy Examples
What are fretworks?

Graph-motor is carried out with the use of borders called fretworks, which are formed by straight and curve strokes, depending on the traits and movements that we seek to strengthen or soften. The use of fretworks contributes to make our hands get used to new movements and rotations to train the graphical impulse, distributing energy and muscle relaxation for the writing zones to be in equilibrium. From the psychological point of view, perception of geometrical shapes produces tension and curved shapes have a symbolic projection towards the interior. Harmonic shapes relax and produce acceptance. The circle impacts in both cerebral hemispheres simultaneously, producing benefits. This is why creative Graphotherapy uses mandalas.

Creative Graphotherapy: Mandalas

What is a mandala and what does it symbolize?

The term mandala derives from Sanskrit and means sacred circle, wheel, center, magic ring. It symbolizes the universe and it is composed by concentric geometric designs. Mandalas are used in the East from the times of dawn to meditate, equilibrate disorders that unbalance the individual. They have been found engraved in the pyramids of Egypt, in papyrus, in the Chinese civilization, among others. They have their ancestral origin in India, but they have been spread throughout the eastern cultures.

They contribute to concentrate energy, to harmonize and control anxiety that emerges in crisis moments. They represent the connection in our inner world and outer reality. They are images that influence the human being at a subconscious level.

Carl G. Jüng introduced mandalas to the Western civilization and to modern psychology, investigating his on psyche. He carried a personal diary in which he expressed his drawings and dreams every morning when waking up. These expressions changed according to his state of mind. Some mandalas present four directions that he connected with the four psychological functions: thinking, feeling, intuiting and perceiving.

Through the use of mandalas, he managed to discover the shaded subconscious content, achieving the integration of the psyche.

According to Carl Jüng, “mandalas represent the totality of the mind, including the conscious as well as the subconscious”. Culturally the mandala symbol is associated to the self or yourself. The goal of life is to get to that “self”, which is transcend all opposites. As human beings mature over time and through experiences, they are expected to develop their self, their “themselves”, and be less egocentric. That they approach more to others.

Graphotherapy: The Golden Rules of Graphical Reeducation

According to Professor Mauricio Xandró, these rules are:

• Legibility
• Organized writing
• Predominance of curves over angles
• Vertical or slightly inclined towards the right writing
• Progressive writing
• Agility in movements
• Spontaneity in writing
• Grouped writing
• Predominance of garlands over arches
• Simplified writing

Graphotherapy Uses

Graphotherapy may be applied in multiple scenarios. It can improve ability for concentration, memory, school performance with the consequent improvement in self-confidence and self-esteem in children. It is a tool for parents to get to know their children, monitor them and guide them in the right path.

It is useful for rehabilitation after brain damage, dysgraphia, dyslexia and Parkinson.

In Psychiatry, to study mental disorders, different types of stress, lack of will, concentration and attention, behavior disorders, obsessions, disorganization and disorder in general, self-esteem issues and personal insecurities, among others.

This is the end of this article about Graphotherapy, stay on this website in order to learn more about Handwriting Analysis Signature and Handwriting Analysis: Letter “s”.

Read also: Resilience in Handwriting

Discover Resilience through Graphological Analysis. What is what makes people adjust to adversities and get over them? What makes us face hard facts and carrying on?

What is Resilience?

The term “resilience” comes from Latin “resilio” which means bouncing, reemerging. From the field of Physics: the ability materials have to get back to their original shape after they have been deformed due to the presence of an outer impact.

There are circumstances that change our lives or the life project we someday sketched. There are people who have to go through catastrophes, terminal diseases, and traumatic facts during childhood. Despite that, they manage to develop as mature individuals, adjust to society and display their abilities.

We ask ourselves, how do they do that? If you ever had to go through mourning, lose a job, breake up with your partner, where do we get the strength from at the right time?

Here we describe what resilience is and where to find it in writing.

What is a Resilient Person?

The resilient person, faces a problem and adjusts to the situation. He gives himself the chance of discovering a deep wealth in his being, coming out strong due to contact with talents that so far had been unknown.

It is the ability to face adverse situations and conflicts in a constructive way. It is a creative ability, which allows people living a more productive life. When critical situations arise, sometimes we tend to block or anaesthetize the contact with “the wound” The resilient person, on the contrary, does not go back to original state prior to the critical event. He does not deny facts nor does he say “nothing has happened here”. Quite on the contrary, he does not interrupt the evolutionary process. He develops a talent that allows going through crisis, which activates a potential until that latent moment.

What is Resilience Theory

Investigations demonstrate that resilience is not something extraordinary, but it is a common characteristic to all individuals, which is possible to develop through specific strategies. Specialists in resilience coincide in not presenting it as a special attribute from exceptional individuals. It is a specific function in the psyche in order to adopt a healthy attitude when we are forced to “deform” due to external circumstances.

The truth is that resilient people experiment most of the problems that non-resilient people go through. The main difference is the quickness with which they recover from failures in their lives. Being resilient does not impede suffering or anguish. It is natural that before painful situations, the emotional state is affected. Resilience is not a characteristic that we either have or not have, but that is included in the way of thinking, behavior and actions.

Resilience is Learned: How to Be a Resilient Person

Some individuals seem to be more resistant than others, but resilience is a dynamic trait, not a permanent ability. Resilient individuals show the dynamic auto-renovation, when less flexible individuals are worn out and negatively affected by stressing factors.

Pillars of Resilience: Protective Factors of the Human Being

There are protective factors for human beings. We must try to stimulate them once detected.

• Self-esteem, trust. It is the base of the rest of the pillars. Resilient individuals trust their abilities. Being conscious of their potential and limitations allow them to determine their goals and feel sure of achieving them. Nevertheless, they recognize the importance of teamwork. They don’t confine themselves. They know, when to ask for help.
• Introspection. It is the art of asking yourself and answering honestly. It depends on the solidness of the self-esteem that is developed from others´ recognition.
• Independence. Being able to set limits between yourself and the conflicting medium. Ability to keep emotional and physical distance without falling into isolation. (In cases of abuse, this ability is very much affected).
• Ability to relate to others. Ability to establish laces and intimacy with other people, to equilibrate the own need of affection with the attitude of making ourselves available to others and social support. When resilient people go through a potentially traumatic event, their first goal is getting over it. They are conscious of the importance of social support. And they do not hesitate in seeking professional help.
• Initiative and tenacity. They are tenacious in their purposes. They are flexible but they do not give up their goals. They persist. The difference is that they do not fight against windmills. They take advantage of the current and they flow with it.
• Humor. They find the funny side in the tragedy itself. They face adversity with humor. One of the essential characteristics is the sense of humor that contributes to stay optimistic and allows us to focus in the positive aspects.
• Creativity. It is the ability of creating order and beauty out of the painful experience. It is the fruit of ability for reflection. He is not limited to fixing the broken jar, and is conscious that he will never be the same. The resilient individual will make a beautiful mosaic out of the broken pieces.

Building your Resilience

• They do not try to control situations. One of the main sources of tension and stress is the desire for controlling all aspects of our life. That is why, when something gets away from our hands we feel guilty and insecure. However, resilient individuals know that it is impossible to control all situations. They have learned to deal with uncertainty and feel comfortable even if they do not have the control.
• Flexibility before change. Even though resilient individuals have a very clear self-image and know perfectly what they want to achieve, they also have enough flexibility to adjust their plans and change their goals when necessary. These people are not reluctant to change and are always willing to evaluate different alternatives, without holding on obsessively to the initial plans or to a single solution.
• Ethics. Ability to commit to own values and good behavior towards others. Resilient individuals understand that personal desire must extend to common well-being of the rest of the fellow men.
• Ability for critical sense (potential and limitations): It is the fruit of combinations of others. Self-knowledge is a powerful tool at the moment of facing adversities and challenges. Resilient people know how to use it on their own advantage, they know their main strengths and abilities, as well as their limitations and defects. This way they can set more objective goals that do not only take their own needs and desires into account, but also the resources they count on in order to achieve them.

The Road to Resilience: How to keep Resilience

In 1995, Edith Grotberg developed a descriptive model based on resilience. This model considers resilience with a dynamic character, which allows working in order to potentiate and reinforce the same.

It is based on these resilient expressions:

• I have: Social, material and concrete support. I have people I can trust who support me unconditionally.
• I am: Inner strength, psychological strength, others admire me and respect me. I am will power, I am willing to “do”, I am responsible for my actions.
• I can: Personal skills to resolve conflicts, find the right time to talk or act.

How to get Resilience

1. Establishing bonds and connections.
2. Looking for opportunities for self-discovering.
3. Avoiding seeing crisis as problems we cannot get over.
4. Accepting that change is part of life.
5. Moving towards objectives in a realistic way.
6. Acting decisively towards adversity.
7. Feeding a positive vision of yourself.
8. Maintaining a perspective of situations.
9. Hopeful vision of things.
10. Taking care of yourself

Examples of Personal Resilience in Handwriting

Characteristics of Resilient People in Handwriting

The handwriting of individuals with resilient abilities has the following characteristics:

• Evolved handwriting: It has been modified along the years and life experience.
• Shape: Mixed or curved handwriting: Flexible, with ability for adaptation before changes in life.
• Regular writing: Equilibrated personality. Controls impulses and emotions.
• Fluid, progressive, spontaneous, dynamic, harmonic handwriting: It denotes openness to change, without rigidity, driven by a fluid enthusiasm towards the future. Predominance of activity, energy, ability for reaction and decisive skills before conflicts.
• Extended writing: It means easiness to relate, projecting towards the future, self-confidence.
• Slant: Vertical handwriting, vibrating, moderately slanted towards the right. It indicates initiative, moves towards the future.
• Steady pressure: Self-confidence and security in his own resources.
• Continuity: Grouped or connected handwriting: It indicates that there is persistence and determination in the goals that have been set. Does not get discouraged before adversity.
• Direction: Horizontal handwriting with a certain degree of flexibility, slightly ascending. It indicates optimism, enthusiasm and ability for adjustment to situations.

This concludes the article about Resilience in Handwriting Analysis. Feel free to share it with your contacts if you found it useful.

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Read also: What the slant of handwriting reveals?