hand writing experts

hand writing experts

The Art and Science of Handwriting Analysis: Exploring the World of Handwriting Experts

1. Introduction to Handwriting Analysis

What is graphology? It is the study of the manipulative movements of a human being, carried out with a writing instrument: movements that leave a trace visible to the unaided eye. The detective and legal side of graphology arises because the links between the movement and the writer that made it can be scientifically quantified. Detectives record minute scratches and traces on suspect bombs and explosives. Surgeons similarly record the leakage of radioactive materials cells that shouldn’t be there. The military concern themselves with fingerprinting objects and people, and so do insurance agents. The man in the street is also caught up with pursuing his own security and protection so he uses a pen in special inks that can only be detected under ultra-violet or infra-red light. In the same way, the handwriting examiner looks at writing in the same way: every page of it, every line, every curve, every angle, every loop, every dot and every stroke.

Handwriting analysis, or graphology, is popular among the general public but scorned by the scientific community. Both groups overemphasize the identificatory aspects of handwriting analysis and do not appreciate the breadth of scientific field that graphology can be. This article seeks to bridge the gap between the exponents and critics of graphology by explaining its links to other established disciplines, its different dimensions, and showing how graphology can develop into an independent science with its own specific research methodologies. With the general public taking graphology into new and different areas and with the scientific community continuing to pooh-pooh graphology as a science, we have an interesting anomaly; all the more so because most handwriting experts are firmly convinced about the truth and validity of their particular field, while the skeptics are equally firm about the sheer quackery of it all. There is a real problem here.

2. The History and Evolution of Handwriting Analysis

Handwriting originated in the fertile crescent in the Near East, around 3,500 to 3,000 B.C., as a medium of communication, a system of accounting, and a repository for actualities. The earliest handwriting, known as cuneiform (Latin for “wedge-shaped”) script, was created by the Sumerians by the process of impressing a writing implement into soft or wet clay tablets that were later sun-dried and baked. For many thousands of years, generations of scribes in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Elam, using only a stylus as a writing instrument, conveyed ideas and thoughts across time and space. The stylus, however, required substantial physical activity and coarsely textured surfaces upon which to write. Both of these factors limited the attractiveness and versatility of the stylus-written script. The stylus, while scrawling and directionless, was an inefficient means of transmitting written knowledge and disseminating the written word.

Handwriting—the art or process of writing—is a fascinating, complex human neuromuscular function that is frequently taken for granted but that has played an important role throughout history, particularly in communication. Handwriting analysis—an umbrella term that describes the scientific study and analysis of handwriting—however, is not an art form; rather, it is a distinct and separate field. Handwriting analysts, commonly referred to as handwriting experts, study handwriting for the purposes of character evaluation, vocational guidance, and behavior modification. Document examiners, on the other hand, study handwriting for the purposes of authenticating documents, detecting forgeries, and making comparisons to establish or disprove the authenticity of writing and documents. Handwriting analysis is a universal language that is multidisciplinary in approach, making use of, and integrating, such fields as graphology, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, physiognomy, forensic science, and the behavioral sciences.

3. Key Principles and Techniques Used by Handwriting Experts

The skillful super spy often knows more about an unsuspecting target than the target knows about himself. It is not surprising that many intelligence and security agencies worldwide have extensive personality profiles of key leaders and potential troublemakers. Critical to the success of such profiles are detailed observations about the way the target formulates and articulates thought. The intelligence analysts rely heavily on standardized personality surveys filled out by applicants and on actual communications by their subjects, such as speeches and position papers. But let us assume that the communication available to the specialists consists essentially of handwriting. After all, handwriting is as much an individual trait as one’s fingerprint. This suggestion is no mere hypothetical question for some of us. Balzac, R.L. Stevenson, W. Somerset Maugham, Eric Ambler, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Constantine Simonides, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling are just a few of the world’s authors who employed handwriting in various ways to move the plot and make revelations about the plot’s key players.

Handwriting analysts essentially use a combination of skills to ‘read’ a personality through the form, content, and process by which the writing was produced. Handwriting is, in fact, one of the most personal and intimate means of communication. It is as much an individual trait as one’s fingerprint and revealing personality traits through its analysis is the realm of forensic psychology and graphology. The graphologist identifies the major personality factors of the writer, such as introversion and extroversion, empathy, aggressiveness, dependence, impulsivity, and pride. Techniques and measurements together provide trained handwriting analysts with key data that could help predict whether the writer is likely to play a constructive or destructive role in a business or public policy setting. Shakespeare’s tragic characters are sometimes destroyed as a direct result of failing to recognize their friends’ traits that are exactly the same in themselves.

4. Applications of Handwriting Analysis in Forensics, Psychology, and Personal Development

Aside from being court qualified, the handwriting expert receives many suggestions, built upon suggestions which originate from problems that people of all walks of life present as they seek aid in interpreting their personal worlds. Handwriting analysis is used frequently in rehabilitation therapies through established handwriting evaluation methods which identify symptoms of national interest programs of basic learning problems including handwriting evaluation. Also, as polio victims had to re-learn how to walk, so also must stroke victims and those recovering from other chronic diseases affecting the brain function and muscles re-learn how to move the muscles that express ideas through handwritten communication. Handwriting can serve as a tool in vocational and occupational therapy by creating an awareness of the hows, whys, and wherefore of occupational handwriting. The handwriting expert can individualize each of these techniques to the particular needs of the patient. Character and personality evaluation, including job placement with vocational, using personality profiles, and occupational analyses, is a large part of the personality guidance carried on in the handwriting profession. Only a small part of the overall job placement program includes writing old text handwriting on companies. Can be slanted, caught, and tempted to meet these new values. Handwriting, in conclusion, ties into cooperative endeavors with other professionals such as speech experts, psychiatrists, and veterinarians. It has solving mechanical and psychological cases and problems that still lie asleep and waiting to be solved by those professionals who dream of doing tomorrow’s things better than today’s.

Only a small percentage of handwriting experts are employed by governmental agencies. Most handwriting experts are independent professionals offering services related to family dynamics, personnel issues, and problems in personal development. In the field of law, the forensic handwriting expert is valuable in the detection of forgery of any type and in cases of disputed handwriting. In the field of psychology and rehabilitation, handwriting analysis is an aid in the evaluation and diagnostic phases of both individual and family problems. Most handwriting problems are as varied as the rope and rag ones, but all are important to the person who has a problem, as well as to the handwriting expert.

5. Challenges and Controversies in the Field of Handwriting Analysis

Criticism of the aspect of the handwriting analysis and its findings still exist today, as it has been done in the past. Consequently, in the field of forensic determination of handwriting, accuracy, precision, and honesty have been questioned as to whether it is a scientific approach or an impression, knowledge, prediction, instinct or advocacy. There are difficulties in setting clear standards for the equal education, knowledge, skills, experience, professional independence, and ethical rules for the variegated examination of the handwriting, and subjective viewpoints or inferences may occur. In a working environment, poor handwriting affects operational functionality and efficiency. Factors that affect handwriting need to be understood. Factors that affect false writing have considerable importance in the prevention of the risk of forgery detection. Criminal acts including document forgery are a phenomenon that has been observed throughout history from the first state. This is one of the reasons that handwriting analysis is an important method in the field of forensic science.

Seasoned professional forensic handwriting analysts often find themselves embroiled in convicted criminal cases when the suspect has been misidentified due to the validity of the scientific basis on which handwriting of mistaken identity was originally based. As a contention, the assertion is a sweeping one. In fact, there are challenges and controversies in this field of handwriting analysis. During the experimental and research processes of handwriting analysis, difficulties affect writing technique, elements of different writing styles, and recognition of contemporary messages of writing. Everyone has a unique genetic makeup. In the case of identical twins, only the gender and date of birth are unique, and because the date of birth information sometimes has to be confused with the identically placed dates of birth, they sometimes become involved in cases of written personality verification. Time, historical period, social class, district administration, and two-thirds of the external factors can create general trends and collective characteristics.