Understanding handwriting for better relationships

Understanding handwriting for better relationships

By Ati Nurbaiti

JAKARTA (JP): Your handwriting, graphologist Ness Shirley asserts, illustrates your personality.

A disconnected horizontal bar of a "t" reveals impatience, small characters show modesty and a downward line indicates discouragement. A small left margin reveals a clinging to the past, while a tendency to leave a large gap at the top of a page shows a great respect for authority.

Before rushing off to practice and reflect on your handwriting in this age of the laptop, Shirley says that handwriting doesn't change much due to lack of practice.

"A change in handwriting reflects a change in personality," she explained while using her own daughters as examples. "My eldest has got bigger handwriting now." Shirley said this reflects her daughter's jump in self confidence after entering the business world.

Shirley, from Scotland in Great Britain, is a graphologist. Graphology, according to The World Book Encyclopedia, is the study of a person's handwriting to gain information of his or her personality.

Shirley said she studied the science 12 years ago at The School of Graphology in Brussels, Belgium.

Managers in Belgium and France place high importance on handwriting when recruiting employees. They look to see if the perspective employee has a sense of autonomy and cooperation.

"Old companies look for tradition and conventionality in recruits," said Shirley, whose services are often requested by managers.

But she quickly warned that employees should not be afraid of getting the sack because of their handwriting.

"When you gain understanding of a person it's very good for better communication," said Shirley, who added that she specializes is stroke analysis.

Shirley was talking to a crowd last week at the pen display in the Atrium at Plaza Indonesia.

When her contract with the Mont Blanc pen company ends, she is scheduled to hold a one-day introduction to graphology here in March.

Handwriting, she continued, also reflects our "coping mechanisms". It discloses a person prone to telling little white lies as well as those who are good and those who are hostile when coping with their surroundings. It uncovers a person with a chip on their shoulder and a person who can't say no.

But Shirley knows the limits of her skills. She said she would have to learn about other scripts, like Chinese, before being able to study all handwriting.

An immediate challenge came from none other than Mrs. Maud Girard, who teaches Chinese archeology in a number of institutions in France and is the wife of French ambassador Dominique Girard.

"It's a Taoist phrase," said Mrs. Girard, explaining what she wrote, after refusing to be cajoled into writing Latin script.

"I would have to learn how people of the culture were brought up to write, regarding pressure, slant and size for instance," explained Shirley.

"Psychology helps in studying handwriting, but a graphologist must not pretend to be a psychologist," she added.

Where is the line then?

The World Book Encyclopedia states that many scientists regard graphology as a pseudo-science because many of its claims lack scientific evidence. Psychologists, however, consider the study a useful diagnostic tool.

You can find out more at the one-day introduction to graphology by Ness Shirley in March. Check with the International Community Activity Center (ICAC) on Jl. Kemang Raya 14, South Jakarta.