History of Handwriting Analysis

Important Information:

Graphology is the study and analysis of handwriting. This can effectively assess the writer’s traits/personality. Scientific Handwriting Analysis is used primarily for authenticating a document or signature and has little to do with that person’s make-up or personality.

Before the analysis, if not performed face-to-face, the responsible graphologist is required to know the writer’s age, sex and nationality – none of which will be revealed in the writing.

Graphology can effectively determine that individual’s personality and myriad of unique traits, including his/her strengths and weaknesses. We all write differently. That is because we are all different. The slant of the letters, their pressure, size, breadth, height and spacing between the letters along with a myriad of other signs, represent the different aspects of the writer’s personality.

Historical Background:

It may surprise you to know that Graphology dates its genesis back to 1622 and perhaps even earlier.

Throughout history, scientists, philosophers, artists and others have been interested in the relationship between the handwriting and the writer. This interest appeared as early as 1622. Efforts at handwriting analysis began in 1872, with the work of the French abbe, Hypolite Michon, who gave graphology its name. Michon and his compatriot, Jules Crepieux-Jamin developed the school of isolated signs. This attempted to relate specific handwriting elements to specific human traits.

It took a while. In 1910, Milton Newman Bunker, a shorthand teacher, in Kansas, let his curiosity get the better of him. He wanted to know why, as a penmanship student, he had put wide spaces between his letters and long finals on his words. He began to study the graphology that began in Europe and realized that it was a “hit” or “miss” environment with major contradictions stated by various authors.

In 1915, Bunker made his unique discovery. He recognized that each of his students formed shorthand strokes in a unique manner. He suddenly and clearly realized that it was not the letter which had a trait meaning but the strokes – the shape of the formations within the letter. Graphology suggested that an O with an open top – that is a space opening, indicated a person who would speak very openly and often. He checked and found this to be true. He thought, however, that logically, other letters with the same circle formation (a,g,d & q) should have the same meaning and after checking carefully, he found that they did.

After traveling thousands of miles, and interviewing thousands of people and examining more than half a million handwriting specimens in his lifetime, the copyrighted American System of handwriting analysis – Graphoanalysis was born.