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. Handwriting and GreativityW D TenHouten, University ot California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

@ 2011 Elsevier lnc. All rights reserved.

This article is a revision of the previous edition article by Warren D TenHouten, volume 1, pp. 799-807, @ 1999, Elsevier lnc

GlossaryCreative aspirations The interest in, and the desire for, therealization of a creation. Graphologically, creativeaspirations are reflected in the height and elaboration oftheupper zone of letters such as t, I h, k, and l, and in manycapitalized letters. It is the expressiveness ofwriting, or thetotality of graphic movements, that is sufficient todifferentiate one writer from another.Creative organization The deliberate and systematicproduction of ideas and methods that result in creation.Graphologically, the creatively organized person can beexpected to show good organization, simplification of form,and originality ofgraphic expression. Cood organization isreflected in the overall use of space and movement in time(ease of forward movement). Simplification is the use ofeconomic shortcuts, finding economy of time and motion,and seeking what is essential. Originality refers tospontaneity and creativity in the handling of space, form,and movement.

Creativity in writing The ability to produce new forms, torestructure stereotyped situations, to innovate, to redefine,and to improvise. Required is the aspiration to imagine andconceptualize creations, together with the organizationalskills for turning such ideas into obiective creations.Graphology The study or description of handwriting inrelation to changes from the ordinary which occur in somephpical disorders, such as hyperactivity, learningdisabilities, and alexithymia; the art or science of inferring aperson's personaliry, character struc(ure, and possibly,aptitudes, ftom the peculiarities of his or her handwriting.Intentionality Creativity iequires that a person is able tocare abot,t a srate of future aflairs (the realization of a

creation), to organize a program to realize this state, and topersevere in this endeavor in spite ofdistractions, obstacles,and obstructions. On the other hand, the intention to solvea problem can lead to the deliberate and systematicproduction ofideas that result in creations.

Spohen words are the sytnbols of mental agerience, and. written words arethe symbols of spohen words. Aristotle

Graphology, Personality, and Culture

Eleventh century Chinese scholar Kuo Io Hsu daimed that byusing handwriting. he could distinguish "the noble man fromthe common man from a moral point of view." Efforts todevelop graphology as a rational science were underway ineighteenth century Europe and North America, and for wellover a century there has been a consistent, yet limited, interestin the relationship between handwriting and personality.Notably in France and Israel, graphology is widely used inpersonnel selection. This practice has been justly criticized as

unfair to potential employees, for its results fail to approachthe levels of validity attained by other widely available and less

expensive screening devices. Graphology is not a viablemethod of assessing an individual's potential, and lacks abilityto predict on-the-job performance. More generally, the claimsofpractitioners ofgraphology that their 'science' is sufficientlydeveloped to have practical reliability and validity has scantsupport (Edwards and Armitage, 1992).

With respect to the evaluation of personality, graphologyhas not shown itself to be effective in well-controlled tests.

Guides to graphology that describe relevant factors to examine(e.9., slants, zone, pressure, size) and the traits (e.g., character,

personality, moral) they are daimed to 'reveal' lack consistencyand await standardization. Attempts by Fumham et al. (2003)to predict psychometrically valid personality measures fromreliably measured handwriting factors collected under non-self-conscious conditions have also failed to establish robustrelationships between graphology and personality. The claimsmade for graphology are either not supported, or at best onlyoccasionally and weakly supported. Yet, the possibility offuture success cannot be ruled out. Graphology should not bedismissed as mere quackery and pseudo-science, or dismissedalong with astrology, parapsychology, palmistry, the Tarot, andother such occult knowledge practices, even though the rootsof graphology can be found in synpathetic magical practi€es.

The invention of writing, as a technique of representingspeech by a durable trace, was historically a dramatic leap for-ward for humanity. Sequential numbering which requires aslntem of number signs, is inconceivable without writing, andsuch a number q/stem is prerequisite for a system of economicexchange. This in turn is a requirement for the development ofurbanDed societies with developed economies, in which timeand value are subject to calculation. Thus, while graphology hasa long way to go to establish itself as a way to measure salientaspects of one's personality and character stmcture, writing hasplayed a crucial role in the development of civilDation.

On the individual level, writing is essential to the develop-ment of cognitive abilities. The leaming of handwriting has thepower to initiate reflection and to encourage the higher cognitiveprocesses of analysis and abstraction. WhereVer there are stu-dents, legible writing is required, attractive script is appreciated,

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Handwriting and Greativity 589

and both can affect evaluations by teachers and institutionalgatekeepers. As text comes to be written directly onto com-puter keyboards, and as the 'man of letters' comes to bereplaced by the 'blogger,' skilled handwriting has waned inimportance. Because each person's handwriting is unique,however, graphology can and will long continue to be usedin legal systems to detect forgery and ascertain authorship ofwritten text. Handwriting is of interest to cognitive and affec-tive neuroscience, because certain pathologies ofbrain devel-opment and neurochemical processes of brainwork can resultin pathologies in speaking, reading, and writing. Whilehumans of all cultures, as far as we know, have the potentialfor reading and writing, those cultures which remain largelyilliterate fall short of developing in their members the mostspecial of left hemisphere functions, rvhich include rationalanalysis, and which presuppose the measurement of time andmoney. Literacy, together with numerical cognition, confersability to question the epistemological and theological doc-trines of one's culture and civilization, thereby attaining thepotential for developing a rational, enlightened, and scientificunderstanding of the world. While neuroscientist losephBogen (cited in de Kerckhove and Lumsden, 1988: aa2)groused about our own culture being a scholasticized, post-Cutenberg-induced-industrialized computer happy exaggera-tion of the Graeco-Roman penchant for'propositionizing,' r'emust take literacy, reading, and rvriting seriousl.v as one com-ponent of what might be needed in order to avoid a possiblebroader 'clash of civilizations' promoted by fundamenralistsof all kinds. With writing, and handu'riting, comes the prom-ise of freedom to think logically and clearlv, hopefully in a rvaythat is not limited by the lack of affect and s),rnbolization,which Bogen called 'appositionalizing.' By being taught todecode alphabetic texts, which are both linear and sequential,the brain is encouraged to adopt strategies of sequential anal-ysis for a wide range of other cognitive operarions as we1l. Thisinsight was first expressed inPlato' s Phoedrus, in his suggestio nthat the art of writing bears a strong resemblance to the fourrules of investigation - examination, division (into kinds orvariables), order, and enumeration. this insight w,as anicu-lated by Descartes, 2000 years later, in his Dlscourse on Method.We find this perennial idea further explored, and groundedin contemporary neurocognitive theory, in Martin Taylor's(1983) model ofthe bilateral cooperative model ofreading.

Creativity: Aspirations and 0rganization

Creativity requires productive thinking. There is a 'dialectical'aspect to creativity in that it often involves interactionof logical-analytic/propositional and gestalt-synthetic/appositional modes of thought), which are ordinarily latera-lized to the leIl and right sides of the brains of right-handedadults without substantial brain damage. Thinking that inte-grates these two opposite yet complementary modes ofthought is perhaps necessary for creativit, but alone is insuffi-cient because oflinkages between creativity and intentionality.On the one hand, creative ideas can be stimulated by theintegration of analytic and syrrthetic thought. But creativitymeans more than an idea and an aspiration; also required is

that something actually be created, a creation.

Graphology, the Study of Handwriting

Proponents of graphology (see Brannan, 2004) maintain thatwriting can be used to identi$/ a seative personality insofar as

writing communicates not only the semantic content of wordsbut also expresses features of the personality structure of thewriter. Handwdting is a process of psychomotor gesturin& tlisgesturing exemalizing and thereby giving creative expressionto ideas and the contents of inner speech. Qualitative-holisticand quantitative methods of graphological analysis have beendeveloped with the intention of enabling graphologists tomake inferences about'sectors' or'constellations' of personal-ity structue on the basis of detailed features of handwriting,on the levels of words and letters. One well-known quantita-tive graphological technique, the Psychbgram, was developedby K Roman and given formalization and elaboration byD. Anthony. The mostusual obiective of graphology in general,and the Psychogram in particular, is to represent an integratedview ofan individual's personality. The forry separate graphicindicators of the Psychogram (organization, rhythm, speed,rightward trend, pressure, etc.) are pafiitioned, on a concep-wal, a prioi, basis, into eight sectors, induding 'intellect,aspirations, and creativity'. Roman wisely cautions that nosingle component or feature of handwriting can be interpretedwithout reference to others, even though for purposes of anal-ysis they can be set apart and considered separately, viewingeach one by itself. A single feature is significant only in relationto the group to which it belongs. This advice is widely ignoredby graphologists. For example, Brannan (2004: 38) does nothesitate to daim that "a relatively heavy r-bar is evidence ofstrong will-power. . . . This trait implies the strength of purposeof the writer" (an inference made about Babe Didrickson [lived1914-19561, a noted female athlete). Anthony operationallydefines the intellect-aspirations-creativity sector of the Psycho-gram by six quite general features of handwriting samples:

1. good organizational structure;2. innovative simplification of form;3. upperzone elaboration ('desire to form, build, or arrange,'

e.9.. of the letters b, d, f, h, h l, and t, and capitalizedletters);

4. upper zone height;5. originaliry, and6. expressiveness (indicated, most generally, by an overall

consistency in effort and direction).

Creativity, Thought, and the Brain

Gestalt-synthetic, holistic thought (in the adult, right-handedperson) is usually associated with the functioning of the rightcerebral hemisphere (RH) of the human brain, and logical-analytic thought with the left hemisphere (LH). Intentionality,along with planning monitoring, editing commanding, andcontrolling, is associated with the executive-level functioningofthe ftontal lobes ofthe brain. The frontal lobes evolved ourof, and remain dosely linked to, the limbic structures whichprovide emotional response to images and models, and which,in combination with memory and information about thebody and environment, enable the frontal lobes to direct

590 Handwriting and Creativity

meaningful, goal-directed actions in the interests of the self.The goal-directed behavioral programs of the frontal lobesextend to intentions and plans. These programs are complexresuits of social development and are formed with the partici-pation of language, which enables abstraction, categorization,and generalization, and which is much involved in the conuoland regulation of behaviour.

Dysgraphia and the Split Brain

Dysgraphia - handwriting disability, can come abour, as rve

have seen, as a result of living in a Iargely preliterare cuhure.It can also come about as a developmental disorder dueto genetic accident, injury or illness. Dysgraphia seldomoccurs in isolation, as it is often concomitant with relateddisorders such as alexith)..rnia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, parkin-sonism, hepatic encephalopathy, aphasia, artention-deficitdisorder, and various emotional pathologies. Still-developingdysgraphic students are apt to also have physical disabilities,sensory impairments, mental impairments, or emotional dis-orders. Dysgraphia stands in the way of academic success.

Students with dysgraphia in the United States are eligible forspecial educational services, and are apt to be placed in cate-gorical classroom programs designed for children with specificlearning disabilities.

We can understand creativity through the study of neuro-Iogical patients with a pathological lack of integration of ana-l1tic and syrlthetic thought. Such a group of patients are the'split-brain' (cerebral commissurotomy, corpus callosotomv)patients who have had the two hemispheres of their brainssurgically divided through sectioning of the corpus callosum, a

structure containing some 200 million nerve fibers that directlyconnect the two hemispheres. This radical surgery was carriedout as a ffeatment of last resort for severe, drug-refractoryepileptic seizures. Following this operation, patients are lim-ited in their ability to integrate the workings of the two sides of

the brain. The two hemispheres can be of two minds. One ofthese patients would put his arm around his wife with onehand, while pushing her awaywith his other hand and arm, a

case of true ambivalence.In a remarkably simple but nonetheless crucial experimen-

tal study of eight patients undergoing split-brain surgeryJ. Bogen discovered limitations in both their writing and their&awing abilities. Following the operation, the right side of thebody is controlled by the LH and vice versa. Therefore, perfor-mances carried out by the right hand result fiom LH actMty,and performances carried out by the left hand are related to theactivities of the RH. These patients, who were all right-handed,eryerienced a reduced capacity to wdte (dysgraphia) withtheir left hands but not with their right hands. They alsoeperienced a reduced capacity to copy figures (dyscopia)with the right hand, but not with the left. The dysgraphia-dyscopia phenomena are illustrated in Figure 1 by responsesof one of the split-brain patients. To measure dysgraphia, a

written model of the word, 'Sunday' was presented. The patientwas able to copy this word with his right hand (and LH) butcould manage only a crude'S A with his left hand (and RH).His severe dyscopia is illustrated by his effort to copy a crossand a solid cube. He copied the figures quite well with his lefthand, butwith his right hand showed no configurational ability.It would appear that he started at the top (line segment 1) andthen proceeded dockrarise. He drew the first seven lines correctly;butattheend ofline 7 (the'bottom'line), he made awrongturn,leftward, instead ofup upward and to the right. It is as if the leftside ofthe cross fell offits axis between lines 7 and 8. It appears as

ifhe grasps the figrue as a sequence of lines thatturn either to theleft or right, but made one wrong turn. This could have been aneffort at linear direction finding, but it most certainlywas not anexercise in gestalt completion. For the cube, it is as if he hadmerely used his left-hemisphere recognition of a number ofconnected lines, and then made a visual gesture of stacldngsome of them up. He showed no configrrational ability torecognize the cube as a whole or gestalt.

-eA glflsLeft (using the printed Left

'Sunday'above as a model)Model Right

Figure I At the left side of the figure, dysgraphia in the left hand (and right hemisphere) illustrated by the inability of a commissurotomy patient towrite the word "Sunday" with his left hand (and right hemisphere). At the right, dyscopia in the right hand (and left hemisphere) illustrated by apatient who, while able to copy models of a cross and a cube with his left hand (and right hemisphere), failed to do so with his right hand (and lefthemisphere). Reproduced irom J Bogen (1969) The other side of the brain l: Dysgraphia and dyscopia following cerebral commissutotomy. Bulletinol the Los Angeles Neurological Societies,vol.34, Figure 5b, p. 83.

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llandwriting and Greativity 59.1

Alexithymia, Creativity, and the Split Brain

Klaus Hoppe and j. Bogen found alexithymia - a cognitive-affective disturbance involving a lack of words for feelings, intwelve commissurotomized patients. Alexithymia literallymeans 'no words for feelings.' A better term would have beenthe existing Creek work, a-thymo-aleila, which means 'no feel-ings for words.' By analogy, the problem of the color-blindperson is not a lack of words for colors, but rather a lack ofcolors for words. The alexithymic person has difficuhv describ-ing his or her feelings to other persons. There is a difficuln'inverbally identi$,ing feelings but also in distinguishing feelingfrom bodily sensations. There is a lack of slrnbolizrtions,termed 'asyrnbollexia'by Hoppe in 1985, and an impoverish-ment of fantasy life, resulting in a utilitarian, operational modeof thinking. The opposite of alexithyrnia, called'sgnbollexia' b1'

Hoppe, is apt to be taken for granted in the everyday world butmust be considered a form of creativity in its own right. Accord-ing to interhemispheric transfer deficit theory alexithymiaresults fiom a physical or functional disconnection of the twohemispheres, such that the cognitive representations of negativealfects (of the RH) cannot be articulated in words (bythe LH).J. J. Bogen and C. Bogen (1969:201) have argued thar aninteraction benveen the modes of thought of the two sides ofthe brain is necessary for creative thinking. They suggest that"to demonstrate that division of the corpus callosum leads toa Ioss of creativity, we need some measure of creativity."

Handrrriting pror-ided such a measure in a further alexithy-mia study carried out by TenHouten et al. in 1985, whichincluded eight of the twelve split-brained patients of theHoppe-Bogen stud,v and eight precision-matched control sub-jects. All 16 subjects were shown a 3-minute videotaped film

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592 Handwriting and Creativity

four times. The film's two scenes depicted, with rnusic andvisual images but no words, the deaths of a baby and of a

boy. AIier the second showing of this film, all subiects wereinstructed to write four sentences expressing what they feltabout the film. Small samples of the handwriting of the sub-jects are shown in Figure 2. The commissurotomized patients,in comparison to controls, were described by Psl,chogramvariables as having less form and arrangement in the elabora-tion of their writing's upper zone and they wrote in a less

expressive way. They were relatively constricted in their expres-

sion of self, as their graphic gestures lacked individual distinc-tiveness. Their script lacked rhlthm and coordination ofmovements, organization, and trizonal dynamics. In additionto its arrhythmic quality, their handwriting lacked an effectivearticulation of the letters u,ith connecting strokes, whichaccording to Anthony, indicates a lack of'creativeness ofthe graphic expression.' Patients were infirm in their rvritingstroke (ductus) and showed an arrhythmic alternation ofpressure and release. Here they can be said to lack conuolof sensuous expression. Their writing lacked consistencv inthe slant of the letters. There is inadequate control over align-ment and direction of lines and spaces between lines. Andfinally, there was a general irregularity in these patients' script.The handwriting samples were scored on the Psychogram by aprofessional graphologist, Marc Seifer, who u,as told only theage and sex ofthe writers (standard procedure in graphology).The six variables classified as indicators of creativity were inter-correlated, with the result that al1 correlations but thosebetween Organization and Upper Zone Height w,ere positive.A factor analysis of this correlation matrix resulted in a two-factor solution, meaning that there are two latent, abstractconcepts which might explain the correlatior-rs.

Aspirations and 0rganizati0n Measurement

The two upper zone variables - Upper Zone Elaboration andUpper Zone Height - joined Expressiveness in the first factor.Anthony defines 'aspiration' as a desire for the realization ofvalues - of "ideals, ambitious intellectuality, pow,er, honour,excellence . . ." (1977:3). He argues, "Craphologically, it is com-monly reflected by the upper zone elaboration .. . and upperzone height (. . . interest and aspirations above the daily routine,the intellectual guiding principle)" (1977: 3). Anthony definesExpressiveness as "those graphic movements which are'suffi-ciently distinctive to differentiate one individual from another.'These can include a flair for d;mamic design and spontaneousmovements on the positive side, or by a stulti$uing rigidityand static immobiliqz on the negative" (1977: 3). This three-variable factor was named Creative Aspiration. The second factorattracted the other three intellect-aspirations-creativity sectorvariables: Organization, Simplification, and Originaliry.

Organization refers to the writer's overall use of space andmovement in time (ease of forward motion). Here, the emphasisis on form and design; figure and ground; and uniry coherence,and coordination. If 'creativity is defined, as in Anthony, as "theability to produce new forms, to restructure stereotyped situa-

tions, to invent or innovate, to redefine, to improvise" (7977:3),then good organization can be interpreted as a rather globalmeasure of creatMty. Anthony states that, "high scores forsimplification and originality . . . are indicative of creativity"

(1977: 3). Simplification of form means economic shortcuts inwriting seeking economy of time and motiorl and seeking whatis essential. Originality has the commonsense meaning ofthe term, here referring to "spontaneity ...'and creativity in thehandling of space, form, and movement" The three variablesforming this factorwere together named Creative Organization.The person ofhigh creative aspiration is apt to be known for hisorher original ideas; the person ofhigh creative organization notonly has creative ideas, but possesses the methodological andorganizational skills to turn such ideas into obiective creations.

lntentionality Measures

The commissurotomized patients, as hlpothesized above,showed significantly lower scores for Creative Aspiration andfor Creative Organization than did their precision-matchednormal controls. They were lower than controls for overallmeasures of other sectors as well - for Goal Direction, Libidi-na-l Energy, Expression of Feelings, Control, and Script Quality(Form Level and Functional Produaivity). A'second-order'factor analysis, using six sector-level variables, led to the dis-covery of a possible lack of intentionality in these patients.In both alexithymia and in some psychosomatic disordersthere is an impoverished level of relations to obiects andgoals, and a lack of dynamic energy in relation to these oblects.This lack of intentionality degrades one's ability to sustainfocus. The data, while only exploratory and based on samplesordinarily considered inadequate for multivariate statisticalanalpis, suggest th4t a person predisposed to act with inten-tionality can be expected to show, in his or her handwriting,the following features:

1. an ability to integrate intentions with actions in a fluent andrhythmic manner;

2. good alignment conool, indicated by parallel lines that areunwavering and straight - here reflected in a sense ofdirec-tion and orderliness - and an effective use of time, allsuggesting a functional integrity toward the fulfilment ofobiectives;

3. writing that shows a naturalness and spontaneity in volun-tary control of size, pressure, form, and arrangemenq

4. writing that is firm. with rhythmic alternation of tensionand release in pressure and stroke (an elastic and flexiblestroke shows meaningful functioning the making of aneffective'impression' on the world); and

5. contractions and release that are balanced and rhythmic inmovernent, disuibution, and form, all of which indicate anability to perform productively.

Note in &is description the importance of rhythm (.the

strongest single variable' for commissurotomy-control groupdifferences). The commissurotomy patients' handwritinghad, as global features, Iack ofcoordination and rhythm, inten-tionality, and goal-directedness. Graphological variables contri-buting to Intentionality induded, in addition to three creativityrariables (Upper Zone Elaboration, Upper Zone Height, andExpressiveness): Rhythm, Trizonal Dynamics (psychical energy,goal-oriented behavior), Firmness of Ductus (the control ofmeaningful functioning, or making an 'impression' on theenvironment), Connectedness (ability to connect experiences

I

Handwriting and Greativity 593

purposefully), Fluctuation (which integrates intentions withactions in a fluent and rhythmic manner), Siant Consistency,Alignment Control (indicating functional integrity towardthe fulfilment of oblectives), and Regularity (movement andarrangement volitionally controlled by the writer, an ability toconcentrate, and firmness and resolution). On the sector level,data analysis indicated that intentionality is primarily a jointfunction of two sectors, goal direction and emotional release.

An overall measure of intentionality was positively correlatedboth with Creative Aspiration and with Creative Organization.These results have implications for the study of creativity andof pathological lack of creativity. On the basis of other thangraphological analyrsis, in the same study it was found thatfollowing the splitting apart of the leli and right hernispheresofthe brain, patients had a degraded experience ofsl,rnbols.

These split-brained patients, in comparison to precision-matched normal control subjects, used few affectladen words(a face valid index of alexithl,rnia). Their relatively Iiequentauxiliary verbs suggested a passive and indirect personal style;and they used relatively few adiectives, suggesting speech that isflat, dull, uninvolved, and lacking in color and expression.Further, they were found relatively less apt to fantasize orimagine s)rynbols (of the filmic stimulus). There was an overa-llIack of creativity in the content of their spoken and writtenverbal productions. These patients have been described as dull,flat, colorless, inexpressive, passive, indirect, lacking fantasy,unimaginative, unresponsive to symbols, and describing cir-cumstances of events rather than feelings about these events.The evidence suggests, albeit indirectly, a la& of creadvityin the content of their spoken and written verbal productions.They symbolized in a discursive wa, using mainly secondary-process thought as opposed to a presentational structure con-sistent with primary-process thought. Hoppe (1985) noticedconcreteness in their symbolizations, with an emphasis onstereot,?ic denotations. The strongest overall result of thehandwriting analysis was that, for all of the eight pairs ofsubjects, patients showed less emotional release than did con-rols, which replicates the earlier finding of alexithymia follow-ing cerebral commissurotomy.

The hlpotheses advanced on the basis of graphologicalvariables, distinguishing the handwriting of patients and con-trols, were consistently supported by other data. The split-brainpatients showed a stong dysgraphia in their left hands. Theyalso showed a strong dyscopia in their right hands. TheirIinear-thinking left hemispheres were not informed by theirright hemispheres' affective, expressive, and spatial crearivemode of thought. This interhemispheric transfer deficitresulted in what can be termed an erpression dysgraphia rn tlllerighthand, a phenomenon that had not been detected earlier.The split-brained patients did to some extent, however, expressand syrnbolize emotions, primarily in a subconscious, negativeway, through their handwriting. The alexithyrnia of thesepatients is a matter of degree, and their LHs are hardly devoidof affective expression, especially for positive emotions.Research with split-brained patients shows that their RHs areable to signal their LHs, possibly by means of brainsremconnections. In two of these patients researchers found an'affective aura' rapidly communicated fiom RH to LH (see

TenHouten, 1994; TenHouten et a1., 1988). There was inthis project a continuity of results based on graphology and

on several other content-analytic measures. The criterion vari-ables, it should be noted, were interpreted not as personality orcharacter attdbutes, but rather as cognitive structures.

Smith's Study of Handwriting and Creativity

In one other study of relationships behveen handwdting andceativity in 71 fifth-graders, Willa Smith devised a measureof creativity in 1998. the Graphological Creativity euotient(GCQ), based on the graphological traits spontaneiry openness,flexibility, intuition, autonom, self-acceptance, complo<ity, andpersevemnce. Not surprisingly, an index based on these edecticcriteria did not predict across several measures ofcreativity, but aweakpositive correlation of 0.30 (p:0.01) was found betweenthe GCQ and the Torrance Test of Crearive Thinking (TICI),and between Complority and TTCT (p:0.05), when the orhercreativity variables were controlled. Generally, the results wereweak and nonsignifi cant.

Handwriling Sensitive to Brain Damage

Cerebral commissurotomy is a radical surgery but handwritingcan be distorted even by minor brain damage, ofien withoutthe writer being aware of the change in his or her script. It canbe hypothesized that insofar as a head iniury is potentially life-threatening it is one's signature that is the aspect of handwrit-ing that is most apt to be affected. As an example, following aleft-occipital injury sustained in an automobile accident, myown signature underwent three changes. First, there emerged agreatly simplified, and sometimes eliminated, first r of Warren.The dropped r was always the Ieltmost one, as if rr symbolizedthe Ieft and right cerebral hemispheres: this was corrected onlywith a protracted, conscious effort to do so. Second, a dentemerged at the height in the upper loop of the , in Houten.Graphologists uniformly regard the upper zone of script withhigher cognitive functioning, so that this upper-zone dentedt would be interpreted as symbolizing a pathology of higher,cerebral functions. This script feature lasted less than a year.And third, the an of Houten was essentially dropped, as wereother letters and numbers at the ends of words or numberstrings. This was likely a manifestation of a mild form ofunilateral neglect of the right visual field, not uncommonfollowing left sided occipital lobe damage. It is importantthat we follow Beyerstein's (1992: 392-398) sage advice. tha!just because the brain is responsible for our psychologicalmakeup as well as our writing, it does not follow that "scriptformation necessarily reveals deep seoets about our personalhabits, talents, and predilections." Relationships between min-ute details ofwriting and social, psychological, and neurophys-iological phenomena would appear to exist, but this is noguarantee that graphology can become an effective evaluatii,eor predictive tool. Certainly, there is no aprioribasisto assumethat writing deserves any special status as a window on person-ality or character.

From Graphology to Graphonomics

Handwriting analysis will a-lways have a small following on thepart of interested persons who are apt to also be practitioners

of nonscientific knowledge practices such as astrology, theTarot, and the I Ching. Persons can indeed experience someinsight into the self as a result of having their handwriting'read' by an adept practitioner of graphology. As one of theseauthors, Santoy (1994: 230) proudly concluded, ,,Any novicewho has studied this book carefully is now capable of analyz-ing the handwriting of his friends or acquaintances.,, To assertthat a written r with a "short, tapered horizontal stroke,, revealsa person with "Caustic humor; sarcasm; destructive tenden-cies" is not science, but it does possess a kind of syntheticrationality. It is rooted not in science but in sympatheticmagic. The problem with this 'key to personality' level ofgraphology is that, whatever clues are detectdd about an indi_vidual's handwriting script, there is no way to validare that thedues measure what it is claimed they measure, and the samedues can be interpreted in wildly different wa1n. There is nodoubt that graphologists have overestimated the quality andvalue of graphology. As the same time, there is no doubt thatmany graphologists are highly insightful, and are able to makeuse of detailed features of handwritten script to constnrct ahighly usef,rl overview of a person's personality and characterstructure.

Handwriting is a phenomenon of the world, and as such issubiect to scientific investigation. Advances in the study ofhandwriting focused both on pathology and productivity ofmind, can lead to advances in the scientific study of handwrit_ing from which cognitive and affective mental structures canbe studied in normal and pathological populations and acrosscultures. and writing systems. Handwriting is primarily com-municative, and. tlerefore involves social relationships withother societal members. Graphology can be understood onlythrough multi-level analysis, of the mental, the social, and thebiological. In fact, such an interdisciplinary enterprise has beenunderw4r for two decades, not under the name ofgraphologybut rather as 'graphonomics.' This term, graphonomics, waschosen by an association ofpsychologists, bioengineers, phy-siologiss, computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and engi-neers. The Intemational Graphonomics Society was foundedin 1985. No graphologists were invited to join this Society, andtheir conference proceedings cite no graphologists. Moreover,there was no mention of the possibility that handwriting mightbe correlated with personality. In commenting on this devel-opment, Beyerstein (1992 415n2) observed that, in perusingpublished works by graphologists, he found that none of theauthors "seem conversant with the published research ofthis

highly relevant scientific organization." The scientific analysisof handwriting, graphonomics, is too important to be leli tographologists.

See also: Personal Creativity.

Further Reading

Anthony D (1977) Psychogran 1ulde Book. New york: pantheon.

Beyerstein BL (1992) Handwriting is brainwork: So what? ln: Beyerstein BL andBeyerstein DF (eds.) The Wrlte Stuff; Evaluation of Graphology - The Study olHandwrlting Anallsis. Bufla o, NY: prometheus.

Bogen JE and Bogen GM (1969) Ihe other side of the brain. /i/. The corpus callosunand creativity. Bulletin of the Los Angeles Neurological Socieiles34' 191-221.

Brannan lVlG (2004) Twmty Remarkabte W0nen; Sr/en Thrlugh fheir Handwiilng.LiIre Biver CA: l,rlle Biver Press.

De Kerckhove D and Lumsden CJ (1988) TheAlphabet and the Braln..The Lateraiizationof Writlng. Berlln. Springer-Verlag.

Edwards A and Armitage P (1992) An experiment t0 test the discriminatjng ability oigrapn0logists Perslnatily and lnditidual Dilterences 13: 69-74.

Furnham A, Chamorro-Premuzic T, and Callahan I (2003) Does graphology predictpersonallty and intelligence? /ndividual Difierences Research 1: 7g_94.

Hoppe KD (1985) l\4ind and spirituality. Symbollexia, empathy and G0d-representat 0n.Bullelin 0l the Natl1nal Gulld of Catholic psychtulris1s 9: 353_378.

Hoppe KD and Bogen jE (1977) Alexithymia in twelve commissurotomzed patients.Psycholherapy and Psychosomatics 28 l4B-b5.

Roman K (1952) Handwrlling. Key t0 persanality. New york. pantheon.

Smith WW (1988) Creativity and Handwriting. A Study of the Relationship betweenHandwriting and Creatlvity in Flfth-grade Chitdren.EdD Dissertati0n ATT-8612082,Amherst: Universlty 0f Massachusetts.

Taylor M (1983) The bilateral cooperative model of reading. ln: Taylor I and Taylor M(eds.) fhe Psychology of Reading. New york: Academic press.

TenHouten WD (1994) Creativity, intentionairty, and atexithymia. A graphotogicaanalysis oi spJit-brained patients and normal controls. ln: Bunco l\,4D, Hoppe KD,and Shaw M (eds.) Creativity and,4llect. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

TenHouten WD, Hoppe KD, Bogen JE, and Walter D0 (19S5) Atexthymra. Anexperimental study of cerebral commissurotomy pat ents and normal controlsubjecls. Anerican Journal af Psychialry 143, 31 2-31 6.

TenHouten WD, Seifer M, and Seigel P (1988) Alexithymia and the spllt brain. Vil.Evidence from graplrological signs. ln: Hoppe KD (Guest ed.) HenisphuicSWcializatiln, At'lect, and Creatlvity (psychiatric Clinics of North America Series).Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.

Relevant Websites

www.grapflolo0y.ws/graphology-world.htm - Graphologists and graph0l0gy.www.graph0nomics.0rg - lnternational Graphonomics Society.