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• Personal Growth

February 2005

By Aparna Jacob

Conscious handwriting is an unconscious drawing, contends Max Pulver, an eminent Swiss psychologist who is also an expert in handwriting analysis. With our handwriting, we paint our own portraits as reflections of our innate tendencies. The emotional self can be accurately understood through handwriting analysis. Criminal tendencies are often signaled in the handwriting of psychotics.

Likewise, the treatment of personality and character disorders through deliberate changes in the handwriting has opened up new vistas of research in this field. An interesting development is the detection of cancer from handwriting by Alfred Kanfer, who could detect up to 80 per cent of cancer patients from their handwriting alone. There is a lot of research to prove that the slant in one’s handwriting denotes the degree of expression or restraint, or that its baseline direction defines the mood, while the speed of writing indicates the rhythm of one’s physical and mental activity.

Tick the appropriate alternatives to the following questions and discover the distinctive intricacies of your subtle emotional self.

1. Is the size of your lettering:
a)Very large?
b) Medium?
c) Small?

2. Do your letters form arcades, i.e. the upper portion of letters is curved to resemble arches?
a)Yes
b) No

3. Are your margins:
a)Even on both sides in good proportion to the size of the paper?
b)Wide left margin disproportionate to the size of the paper?
c)Wide right margin?

4. Is the pressure in your handwriting:
a)Heavy?
b)Light?
c)Even?
d)Uneven?

5. While crossing your ‘t’s’, is your t-bar with:
a)Normal pressure and evenly spaced on each side of the stem?
b)Light pressure and weak?
c)Excessively long?
d)Excessively short?
e)Very high above the stem?
f)Post placed to the right of the stem?

6. Do you locate your ‘i’ dots as:
a)Round, directly above the stem and firmly accentuated?
b)Omit the dot entirely?
c)Muddy looking like an ink spot?
d)Very light?
e)Placed after the stem (post-placed)?

7. Is the slant in your handwriting:
a)Reclined (a backhand slant)?
b)Vertical (straight and upright)?
c) Inclined (a forward slant)?

8. Are your words:
a) Well spaced? b)Badly spaced? c)Widely spaced?

9. Are the upper loops and extensions of your letters:
a)Tall? b)Short? c)Inflated?

10. Is the size of your capitals:
a) Large (more than twice the length of your small letters)?
b)Small and narrow?
c) Slightly higher than small letters?
d)Capitals no higher than small letters?

Results
1. a) Signifies excessive pride, vitality. Physically active and extroverted person.
b) Moderation, reserve, reasonableness, prudence and neatness.
c) Inhibition, fear, indecision, abnormal mentality.

2. a) Signifies a desire to attract attention and produce an effect by one’s creative talent; amicable, pleasing and sociable personality.
b) Prosaic and inartistic.

3. a) Signifies a sense of harmony and proportion, good taste, order, poise, balance and carefulness.
b) Reserved due to shyness, snobbery or pride.
c) Aloofness, a search for the grandiose, immoderation, extravagance, wastefulness, fastidiousness.

4. a) Signifies physical strength, activity, vitality, resoluteness, self-assertiveness, materialism, aggressiveness, resistance, sensuousness.
b) Moderate or feeble energy, low vitality, possibly low blood pressure, refinement, gentleness, sensitivity, submissiveness.
c) Emotional stability, calmness, reasonableness, clarity, carefulness, adaptability. When firm and even, it shows ambition, perseverance and self-discipline.
d) Instability, indecision, unequal willpower, excitable and changeable temperament, impatience, nervousness and an inclination to worry.

5. a) Perfectly balanced, calmness, carefulness and a complete control of thoughts and action.
b) Irresolute, timid, moral weakness, despondency.
c) Enthusiasm, persistency.
d) Timidity.
e) Unusual imagination.
f)Impulsiveness, directness, tactlessness.

6. a) Empathetic in all ways.
b) Inattentive, absent-mindedness.
c) Materialism, sensuousness.
d) Somewhat frail, amenable type who never tries to force his opinions on others.
e) A quick mind that looks ahead.

7. a) Introvert. A cold exterior marks inhibited feelings, too reserved, indecisive, not straight-forward and sometimes contentious.
b) The head rules the heart, complete self-control, undemonstrative, independent, detached, indifferent and cautious.
c) Ardent, affectionate, amiable, very sensitive and emotional.

8.a) Mental balance and clarity, good sense of proportion and values, culture, order, carefulness, self-discipline and reasonableness.
b) Poor taste, carelessness, lack of order and discipline.
c) Generosity, courage, independence. If too widely spaced, extravagance, love of luxury, affection, audacity.

9. a) Great intellectual activity, idealism, aspiration, ambition, spirituality.
b) Moderation, little vision or imagination, realistic, practical viewpoint.
c) Exaggeration, egotism, boastfulness, vanity.

10. a) Pride, vanity, self-esteem, conceit, arrogance, affectation, independence.
b) Timidity and lack of self confidence.
c) Modesty, simplicity, poise.
d) Humility, obedience, submissiveness.

Reproduced from What’s your Emotional IQ? by Aparna Chattopadhyay. Reprinted with permission from Pustak Mahal