How difficult it is to develop a complete graphology application! I say “complete” because most of the graphology softwares that are available today merely ask a few questions about your handwriting styles in the form of a questionnaire and then dish out a personality profile about you which is really a very superficial report. This is because graphology is not just about interpreting the handwriting pattern based on a set of pre-defined criteria but also involves a fair amount of unleashing of the intuitive faculties of the graphologist. Hence a graphology software application or a “graphologist robot” can almost never replace the human graphologist.
Graphology is a science. It is a psychological science as it studies the psyche of the individual through his handwriting which is taken to be a catharsis of his mind. Hence the branch of Graphotherapy which helps an employee to attain inner stability and perform his work well within the organization by consciously changing his handwriting patterns. It is also a very powerful tool in developing the personality of small children who don’t demonstrate healthy handwriting patterns in schools. It can greatly improve the performance of an employee within the organization or for that matter greatly improve the learning abilities of school kids. Graphology is also used in forensic analysis and research using handwriting samples.
Graphology involves the dissection of the subject’s handwriting into three fundamental zones, namely: upper, middle, and lower; these in turn roughly map the upper, middle and lower zones of the human body respectively. These can also be taken as the head, the heart, and the libido respectively. The handwriting is also divided into time: past, present, and future; these in turn roughly map the backward regressive letters, bolt upright letters, and the forward progressive letters of the handwriting respectively. Quite strangely Graphology works only with English language!
People whose handwriting is too much backward regressive are said to live in the memories of their past. They are often sad and depressed. People with bolt upright handwriting are said to be formal and cordial. And people with too much forward progressive handwriting are said to be outspoken, extroverted, and many times angry. Handwritings that are typically in the middle zone are those of people who are child-like or childish; a little wobbly and without direction just like a child haphazardly riding a small tri-cycle or car tire that wobbles its way through the road when given a push. Zone analysis also involves the number of “loops” or “bags” made in the upper zone and lower zone. These loops can be formed by letters like ‘h’, ‘g’ etc. Also there is the concept of the size of the “bags” – whether large or small. Subjects with large “bags” in the upper zone are typically very intelligent, creative, and sometimes even prone to dreaming. Large “bags” in the lower zone are taken as signs of healthy libido. Sometimes pregnancy in women can be predicted by looking at their lower zone handwriting – how often they make “bags”; though successful predictions are largely possible only at an intuitive level of a highly talented graphologist.
There are other factors that also need to be considered like the thickness of the handwriting (the pressure of the nib on the paper), and the consistency with which an alphabet is written in a paper without much distortion. We also need to see if the letters in a word are joined (indicates a social person) or whether they are disjoint (indicates an introvert). Factors like thickness/pressure can be very useful in forensic analysis and research of the handwriting samples collected. Abnormal “forward/backward stabs”, mostly in the middle and lower zones, could very well provide large hints in establishing critical forensic evidence.
It is difficult or even impossible for graphology software to measure factors like distortion, “forward/backward stabs”, and “bag” size. These factors can best be negotiated only through a human graphologist.
A quadruple notebook (also known as a four-ruled notebook) has a very important role to play in personality development through developing a healthy handwriting. Each page in a quadruple notebook contains sets of four lines as against the normal notebook which contains single lines. The quadruple notebook is typically used only at the kindergarten level. Every word the child writes on the quadruple notebook falls into the three zones: upper, middle, and lower; that are explicitly defined by the four lines. While this is good for the conscious training and development of a healthy handwriting, this practice is sadly discontinued in many schools as they make the children to use double-ruled notebook or single-ruled notebook even in their early classes.
Graphotherapy within organizations is best achieved using quadruple notebooks.
