We have all heard about handwriting analysis before or at least heard it mentioned in some criminal investigation show. In fact, in real life, it is quite common for law enforcement to conduct a handwriting analysis if profiling a suspect. This is because handwriting provides valuable insight into a person’s mind. We all write differently and every slant, letter and inkblot leaves a clue as to the state of mind we are in when we are writing.
So, do you want to know whether the person who wrote you a note is a friend or foe? Or do you simply want to understand what your own handwriting can tell you about yourself? Either way, you will definitely learn more about handwriting than you ever knew possible.
In this book summary readers will discover:
- What handwriting can tell you about personality traits and feelings towards others
- The darker side of handwriting
- O, A and I – Letters which tell a story
Key lesson one: What handwriting can tell you about personality traits and feelings towards others
The reason that handwriting is so important is that it does not originate from your hand but from your brain. Your hand is just the instrument. This is why analysts are able to get psychological insight into people from handwriting.
Your handwriting is so distinct that if you were to lose your hands and had to learn to write with your mouth or toes, your handwriting would remain more or less the same. In contrast, if you had a brain injury, it could drastically change your handwriting. This further proves that handwriting originates in the brain. The characteristics of handwriting including the slant, size and shape accurately reflect personality characteristics. For example, the direction of the slant of someone’s handwriting can give you an idea of their state of mind just the same as body language would. If someone has their shoulders slouched and are looking down, you know that they are sad or down. In contrast, if someone is walking with their head high and a bounce in their step, it conjures feelings of happiness and confidence. The slant in handwriting is exactly the same. If there is an upward slant, the person is cheerful while a downward slant indicates sadness.
This is clearly depicted when comparing the handwriting of two well-known artists – Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. Van Gogh only sold one painting before he committed suicide. His lifelong struggle was evident in his downward slanting handwriting whereas Picasso was the opposite. His upward slanting handwriting was indicative of his wealthy, enjoyable and successful life as an artist.
When it comes to curves and sharp angles, they can let you know how nurturing a person is. A very stark and acute comparison comes from the handwriting styles of Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s handwriting had no curves whatsoever. His letters were sharp and indicated that he was angry, determined and highly competitive. Mother Teresa, on the other hand, had handwriting with clearly rounded letters and many curves, indicating her gentle and caring personality.
Size really does matter when it comes to writing. You can tell a lot about a person and their feelings towards others when it comes to the size of their writing. A general and quick assessment will tell you that extroverts have large handwriting and introverts have naturally small handwriting. Going beyond that, the size that someone writes your name in relation to their own will let you know how they feel towards you. If your name is written in very small letters whilst the writer signs off with a giant signature, they believe that they think very little of you in comparison to themselves. In comparison, if they write your name much larger than their own name, they hold you in high regard or have quite a low self-esteem. If the names are written in the same size, then they believe you are their equal. Quite handy for analysing your birthday card from the office right?
You can also keep an eye out for someone who has a signature that’s completely different to the way they write. This means that their true feelings are different to what they say in public. Elvis Presley, for example, had a large and flashy signature much like his onstage persona. However, offstage, he was usually anxious and lonely which was clear in his tightly controlled writing.
It’s also a great thing to know about yourself. When you are writing down the names of people, you might notice that when you write down the name of a person you do not like it will tend to be smaller than the other names. Analysing it more closely, the amount of pressure that you use when writing the name will also indicate your feelings towards them at that moment. Less pressure means you are not wasting energy on them and more pressure will mean you are angry with them causing you to exert more energy when writing their name.
Key lesson two: The darker side of handwriting
Handwriting can also give one a very clear indication of a person’s emotional stability. What is common in texting is often viewed completely differently when it comes to handwriting. Capital letters, exclamation marks and other extra characteristics don’t make us think twice when we look at a text but when it comes to handwriting, they should. Using these characters excessively usually lets us know that the person writing has an obsessive personality, has trouble making good decisions and lacks self-control.
Even though slants tell us the emotional state of the person writing, a combination of slants from the same person is a sign of instability. Individually, if the letters slant to the right, the person writing is emotionally driven and is impulsive, volatile and prone to jealousy. If they slant to the left, the writer is emotionally guarded and if there is no slant at all, the person is usually controlling their emotions and aims to be cool and calm at all times. Hence, if you come across a combination of these, emotional instability is expected from the person writing.
Precise handwriting is not a good sign either. This means that the person could be exerting a lot of energy and keeping themselves under pressure to be in control. They actually named handwriting like this, it’s called persona writing. People who exhibit persona writing are trying to stay in control because any deviation would indicate a flaw that can be picked up by those surrounding them. However, this makes people who exhibit this type of writing on the brink of an outburst which could lead to unpleasant situations.
Key lesson three: O, A and I – Letters which tell a story
We are all aware that there are people who surround us who are not trustworthy. However, did you know that handwriting is a great way to identify them? Handwriting will be able to tell you what’s really going on in their head and if their intentions are true.
If you find large gaps between words in a sentence, this indicates that the writer stopped before continuing. This is not necessarily a bad thing as they could have simply been disturbed whilst they were writing. However, if it is someone you are wary or suspicious of, it could indicate deception, especially if it is a common occurrence in their text. In these cases, they have paused to carefully craft the lies they are writing down.
The letters O and A are known as communication letters. They can give you a clear idea of who is trustworthy and who is not. If the letters have an opening or gap at the top of the letters, it indicates that the writer cannot keep a secret. If the gap is at the bottom, it means that the writer is to deceive you. Writers with no gaps in their As and Os are trustworthy and will keep your secrets.
Most importantly, the letter I is the most telling letter when it comes to handwriting as it represents one’s self. The most notorious example is Donald Trump. The way Trump writes the letter I indicates his large ego. It is bold and heavy which is indicative of aggressiveness and intensity. He also uses it a lot which emphasizes his large ego. In contrast, another US president, Bill Clinton, dots his I with a line that makes it look like the letter T. His handwriting shows his self-destructive streak and a tendency to get into trouble, and we all know what trouble Clinton landed himself in whilst in office. Michael Jackson is also an example of how someone writes the letter I represent themselves. He had a tendency to always write the letter I differently. They varied in size and shape and was indicative of his chaotic lifestyle and issues with his identity. Jackson found fame very early in life and he never really showed his true self to the world. The way he wrote shows that he may have been struggling with not knowing his true self. And anyone who writes the letter I in an oversized manner compared to everything else suffers from having a delusion of grandeur. Lee Harvey Oswald was one such person who considered himself smarter than everyone else.
So, pay close attention to how someone writes the letters O, A and I. It will give you some very important information.
The key takeaway from Sex, Lies and Handwriting is:
Handwriting can tell you more about a person than body language can. It comes directly from your brain and is therefore an excellent indicator of psychological traits. One can determine personality, mood and intention all from someone’s handwriting. Not only will paying attention to handwriting give you great insight into others, but it can also tell you a lot about yourself.
How can I implement the lessons learned in Sex, Lies and Handwriting:
How people write the letters O, A and I are extremely important as they can let you know if someone is not trustworthy. Particularly important are the gaps in the letters as well as the presence of any slashes through the letters. These slashes create Xs which is a clear indication of lies and deceit.
