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Signatures
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Your signature provides the graphologist with a better picture of your personality than any
description of your character could do. But your signature does not exist in a vacuum. It doesn't
mean much without your handwriting. You were taught all the letters of the alphabet in school,
along with spacing and margins. Every first-grade classroom has a chart with the shapes of all the
letters. You were probably taught to begin writing in such and such a distance from the edge of the paper, or you
started out with ruled paper, with the margins already marked for you.
Your signature is an entirely different matter. No one taught you how to sign your name,
nor did anyone choose a signature for you. You created your own signature, after many experiments and doodles.
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Your signature undergoes many changes as time passes. Although your signature basically
remains the same, you never sign your name twice in exactly the same manner, even during the same
period of time. If a lawyer shows in court that two signatures are exactly identical, the court
may decide that this is a sufficient proof that one of them is a forgery.
Your signature is accepted in today's world as your personal representation. Your signature on
a check changes it from a piece of paper into money. A judge's signature can send someone to
jail for life; a governor's signature may save a prisoner from the electric chair; a psychiatrist's
signature may determine whether someone will live in society or be hospitalized. Contracts take
effect only after they are signed. Billions of dollars may change hands on the strength of a few
scribbled letters. Try to imagine a world without signatures: society as we know it would cease to
exist. It is not surprising that graphologists have their hands full with real or suspected
forgeries.
Above all, your signature symbolizes the real you - your inner self, your ego. A signature
contain of one or more of these three elements:
1. First Name |
2. Last Name |
3. Additions |
The use of these three elements may change with age, marital status, and social standing. It may change many times, and in
many ways, during the course of a lifetime. Your last name represents your image in society, while
your first name relates more to your individual ego. If you stress your first name in your
signature, this may be an expression of your need to attract attention, or an urge to prove yourself.
This may also be a sign that the writer may not rely on his family, and wants to be judged by his own
merits. If the first name is blown up, and is bigger than the writer's last name and/or the written
text itself, this may indicate egocentricity and narcissism, or self-love. If the writer stresses
his family name, this may symbolize family pride or his dependency, (Upon his family or immediate environment).
At times you will come across a signature which is identical to the writer's handwriting,
with the first name and last name written in such a way that they possess the same characteristics
as in the body of the handwriting sample. In such a case, you can usually conclude that the writer
is at peace with himself. He does not wish to appear to be what he is not, does not want to be conspicuous,
and is sincere and stable. Before completing your analysis, however, you must examine the
handwriting itself, to see whether these properties correspond to the features in the handwriting.
Additions - at times you will find a signature, composed only by additions, i.e.,
something which initially was a signature, or some letters from the full name, and which became
a scribble in the course of time. The simplest addition to a signature is the period. In most cases,
the period appears at the end of the signature, and signifies its conclusion. The use of a period
after the signature may suggest that the writer is subconsciously worried that something may be
added to his signature, or that someone may try to forge it. This added point is a kind of
protection of the signature itself.
You should examine the form of this period under a magnifying glass. You have to determine
whether it is stable and static, or whether it resembles a comma; whether this represents an
attempt to quench the writer's enthusiasm or a balanced, logical, pause. If the point closely
resembles a comma, you can assume that it was produced at high speed (the greater the
resemblance to a comma, the higher the speed). If it resembles a circle, this means that
it was more thought-out and has a different meaning. A static point is generally produced
by slow writing, and indicates balalnced judgment and a feeling of completion. It
may also mean suspiciousness and an attempt to keep a safe distance. A light point, maintaining
momentum, is made almost unconsciously, and is the result of speediness and the desire to stop at
a certain point.
The difference between the signature and the text and the location of the signature are both
important for your analysis.
While handwriting tells us about the writer's inner feelings, the signature tells us what
the writer wishes to be, what image he wants to convey. At times you can learn from the
signature about the writer's past, his ambitions, and his expectations.
You must rely more on your intuition when analyzing signatures.
There are several rules, but the general picture can be gained only intuitively.
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