Handwriting analysis

I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic grammar school.  The nuns weren't as wicked as popular culture makes them seem.  Not one of them ever rapped my knuckles with a ruler.  But they were stern when it came to our studies.

One of the things I can remember being taught was how to write.  I remember the broadly lined paper 
on which we practiced our letters.  The repetitive exercises to make the loops correct, the finishing tales perfect and the spacing just right were tedious then, but I can see the value of them now, when much handwriting is virtually illegible.

But that's not what I'm thinking about, although illegibility irks me to no end.  Although, while I'm on that thought, how do archivists and historians make sense of old writings?  I've seen manuscripts that were purportedly written in English and it seems like pure guesswork that what those experts say things mean actually mean that.  I can look at a scribbled line on some dusty parchment for hours and come up with about ten different possibilities for the word.  And that's not even taking into account the differences in old spellings, like when F's and S's were confused.

But I digress.

No, what is on my mind is the so-called science of interpreting personalities through handwriting analysis.  Sure, there are people who have probably devoted time and energies to figuring out whether a flat L indicates a suicidal tendency, or if a broadly drawn A indicates an excessive personality.  All I know is that when I write, I just try to write as legibly as possible, and when it isn't so legible, it's just that, and nothing more.

But for these experts, interestingly, depending on how I write a particular letter, I could be a serial killer, a monk, a gameshow host or a rapper.  The funny thing is, I've noticed that depending on the surface on which I write, or the angle at which I'm writing, or even how tired I am, my penmanship is affected.  For the analysts' perspective, it would change everything.

I learned to write using the Palmer Method.  That's not to say I have immaculate handwriting, but for a guy, it's not too bad.  I'd say it's legible with some feminine tendencies, to be honest.  I always wanted to imitate our Mother's handwriting, which I thought was beautiful, but I fell short.  I abhor scribbled handwriting; anyone who won't take the time to make something legible is not going to have the time to take something I have to say seriously.  I can understand a badly written thing once in awhile, but all too often, people resort to, in effect, making their marks instead of handwriting.  How, then, can an analyst be sure of what a particular writer's personality is like?

For me, my writing varies depending on a number of different factors.  How anyone can intrepret my personality accurately by using a given sample of my handwriting defies reason.  It's the same as someone trying to predict the future:  Throw enough stuff against the wall and something's bound to stick.  I don't mean to belittle the effort people who specialize in this area make -- although I realize that's just what I'm doing -- but I don't get it.  I like the color green.  Does that make mean I have a particular personality?  I don't write in any other tint but black.  Because I like the color green but don't write in that color, am I self-loathing?  Do my letters as formed indicate that tendency?

I just think there's too much guesswork and not enough science to support the notion.  I can understand looking at signatures and determining whether they belonged to historical figures.  But insofar as determining a personality by the way a person forms his letters?  That's just too far-fetched for me.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles