Autograph collectors are probably not aware of the number of information that firms have of their idols. What could the signature tell us? Napoleon or that of former President Trump? Would the signatures of a poet be very different from that of a well-known architect? The graphology tries to answer these questions and today we will try to decipher how.
What can we discover with the analysis of a signature?
Graphologists say that the signature is like a Pandora’s box, a signature can be multifaceted and can even hide aspects unforeseen by the writer himself. This has an easy explanation: the signature gives us information about the feeling of identity present in the subject.
How is the signature studied?
The signature is usually studied in conjunction with a text sample. It is the most reliable if we want to obtain an accurate study of a subject’s writing, since the signature opens contradictions or even modifies what is diagnosed in the analysis of the text.
The analysis of the signature is compared with the text. The coincidence of structures in both reveals the current personality of the subject and that there is a harmony between the personality shown and the deepest nature of a subject.
Some fundamental features are usually attended to, such as:
- Readability: this feature provides information on the degree of need felt by the subject to show or externalize their personality and their feelings.
- Simplicity-complexity and aesthetics: reveals the clarity and the capacity for introspection and the feeling of inner unity. For example, a very complicated signature made with many antagonistic strokes and forms shows a complex person who is difficult to access to others and who also has internal struggles personally.
If we find people who say that they do not have a signature and make any doodle, it reveals that this person is still in search of a feeling of unity, well-being or satisfaction with himself.
What can we discover about a signature | graphology
Graphologists say that for a study to have any “scientific” validity, a study must be made that includes a sample of text and a signature. Only after comparing both is it possible to draw a profile of our personality.
We go back to the year 1575 to find one of founding books of graphologythe Examination of mills for the sciences of Juan Huarte de San Juan. In American graphology, the first book on graphology is usually considered to be the one written by Camillus Baldi in 1622 and titled Trattato come from a missive letter if we know the nature and quality of the writer.
Already in the 19th century, a deeper study of the analysis of writing begins at the same time that sciences such as psychology or medicine are developed. It was in 1871 when the Societe GraphologyIt was after the First World War that the expansion of graphology consolidated it within the study of pseudosciences.
And it is that despite these historical antecedents, graphology still does not validate its results scientifically. The British Psychological Society places graphology on the same level as astrology and gives both pseudosciences a zero for credibility.
Graphology cannot be compared with forensic graphology or calligraphic expertise, used by criminology and recognized within the judicial system as valid. The calligraphic expertise identifies the identity of the writer.
The main features that are analyzed in a text to determine the personality of its author are the following:
- The order. With this, the mental clarity of the subject, its internal order and features such as the organization and planning capacity of the subject are discovered.
- The size. It shows the degree of expansion of the subject and self-esteem.
- The inclination. It determines to what extent the person relates to others and the degree of her emotional openness.
- The direction of the lines. The degree of stability, fatigue or depression can be discovered. They indicate the state of mind.
- The pressure on paper. You can know the degree of health or disease and the energy level.
- the speed. It expresses the speed or slowness of an individual’s reactions to different situations.
- The continuity (union or separation between letters and words). It allows knowing the degree of constancy and regularity of their actions and thoughts.
- The form. It shows the cultural, ethical or moral behavior of the subject.
Note that the features of a text cannot always be interpreted as in the signature. Sometimes their interpretation is the opposite.