History Of Graphology

In 1875, the French Abbot, Jean Hyppolyte Michon, coined the phrase "Graphology", from the Greek: "Graph" meaning, "To write" or "I write", and "Logos" meaning "doctrine" or "theory". Although the term "graphology" is relatively recent, however, the subject itself dates back many centuries, having originally (as far as we can tell) been taken from Southern India to China and from there to Greece, circa 2,000 BC. Coming closer to present day, relatively speaking, Aristotle wrote: "Just as all men do not have the same speech sounds, neither do they all have the same writing", and Confuscius is recorded as having observed, "Handwriting can infallibly show whether it comes from a person who is noble-minded or from one who is vulgar"

The study of handwriting was mentioned as far back as the days of the Roman Empire. Tranquillus, the biographer of Augustus Caesar, wrote that the Emperor’s cramped handwriting showed his stingy nature.

The belief that handwriting is a sign of the inner personality is very old. The first serious attempt to analyze handwriting seems to have been that of Dr Camillo Baldo, professor at the University of Bologna who have published in 1622 the first known work on it: "Della maniera di conoscere la natura e le qualità dello scrittore in una lettera." ("A Way of Knowing the Nature and Qualities of a Writer from a Letter Written." ) His basic introduction to the concept ran like this: "Colui che apprenderà che gli è possibile riconoscere i pensieri, l'indole e la disposizione dello scrittore, per mezzo di una lettera intima, ridarà o si meraviglierà grandemente." Essentially: "If you're willing to learn about Handwriting, it is possible to understand the thoughts, emotions and disposition of the writer just from a portion of the writings from an intimate letter and be fairly amazed and astonished at the result."

These were almost incredible assertions at the time. And, I might add, fairly useless to the masses because remember that most people at that time neither read nor wrote, and rather just left that sort of "fancy stuff" to the academics and the clergy who seemed to get something out of it. So Baldo's "discovery" had to wait until society caught up with his fascination for the subject!

As literacy spread, handwriting analysis became popular, being practiced as an art form by such literary figures as Goethe, Poe, the Brownings and Dickens. Two French monks, Abbott Jean-Henri Michon, (1806-1881) and Abbot Flandrin began a systematic study of handwriting and published the results. Jean Hippolyte Michon coined the term "graphology" in 1875. Michon systematized handwriting analysis by associating hundreds of graphic signs with specific personality traits.

Probably the biggest social push to dive deeply into some of these great questions had to wait a couple hundred years yet, into the mid to late 1800's, with French and German scholars most prominent: ; Jules Crepieux-Jamin (1858-1940) and Ludwig Klages (1872-1956).

Around the turn of the century, the French psychologist Alfred Binet performed several experiments with handwriting analysis as a device for testing personality. Binet claimed that handwriting experts could distinguish successful from unsuccessful persons with high accuracy. The German school of handwriting analysis, led by Ludwig Klages (1872-1956), developed a subjective and esoteric approach to graphology, and apparently never even attempted experimental verification of its claims.

There is today no single theory or method that dominates graphology. The French school concentrated on isolated signs as specific indicators of personality, and the Germans sought to make subjective interpretations based on a total impression of a person's handwriting. In 1929 M. N. Bunker founded "graphoanalysis" as a compromise between these two extreme positions The language and techniques of graphoanalysis seem to be more or less the common graphological practice in the United States today. (Bunker 1971). Bunker founded the International Graphoanalysis Society, which now offers an 18-month correspondence course for analysts. The society is based in Chicago and claims 10,000 active members. The Institute of Graphological Science in Dallas also offers courses and accreditation in graphology, but it is not affiliated with the Graphoanalysis Society. Unless indicated otherwise, I will use the term "graphologist" to refer to a practitioner of any school of handwriting analysis for personality assessment.

A book "A Psychographology" written by wellknown Russian handwriting analyst Ilya Feodorovich Morgenstern have been published in Russia in 1903. It was reprinted again in 1994.

Speaking about Russian graphology it is nesessary to remember one of the mostly respected graphologist Dmitry Mitrofanovich Zuev-Insarov. His books "A Structure of Handwriting and Character" and "Handwriting and Personality" were issued in the first half of past century and were reprinted at the and of 1900th.

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