Signature for Success. Arlyn J. Imberman

      • Vitality

      • Maturity

      • Intelligence

      • Good willpower

       Heavy Pressure

      Characteristics to look for: deep ink color and strong indentation on back of page.

      Qualities

      • Strong drive

      • Willfulness and determination

      • Desire for control

      • Ability to commit to an objective

       Very Heavy Pressure

      Characteristics to look for: Indentations so deep they almost rip or distort the paper.

      Qualities

      • Frustration

      • Anger

      • Ill temper

      • Intensity

       Light Pressure

      Characteristics to look for: light and delicate writing that barely makes an indentation on the back of the page.

      Qualities

      • Path of least resistance

      • Sensitivity

      • Delicacy

      • Good mental energy

      • Lack of stamina

       Pressure in Lower Zone Only

      Quality

      • For many, an emphasis on sexuality and desire.

      (The word Faithfully is circled for emphasis. The circle is not part of the original sample.)

       DID YOU KNOW?

      Extreme unevenness in pressure is often seen in the handwriting of criminals.

      CHAPTER 3

       What’s Your Sign?

       THE SIX PERSONALITY “TYPES” IN HANDWRITING

       Handwriting styles can be categorized into six types or personalities: introvert, extrovert, intuitive, sensing, thinking, and feeling. Each type will be explained, offering a more holistic approach to interpreting personality in handwriting. Writing samples from notable people will be examined.

      THE NOTED SWISS PSYCHOLOGIST Carl Jung believed that personality can be classified into psychological “types.” His theory was based on how average people acquire and expend their energy; how they receive, perceive, absorb, and process information; and how they use that information to make decisions. In his book Psychological Types, Jung elaborated on three sets of types, each set consisting of a pair of polarities:

      • Extroversion-Introversion: how an individual expresses energy

      • Sensing-Intuition: how an individual perceives information

      • Thinking-Feeling: how an individual processes information

      The extrovert expresses energy to the external world, while the introvert discharges energy toward his or her internal world.

      The sensing type believes and relies on information he or she receives from the external world, while the intuitive type believes and relies on information received from his or her own internal or imaginative world.

      The thinking type makes decisions based on logic, while the feeling type makes decisions based on emotion.

      Many professional graphologists use these same typologies to categorize the personalities of the subjects whose handwriting they are studying. Typology is a useful way to see an immediate “big picture” of the person whose handwriting you are reviewing. From there, you can hone in on the subtle traits that make this individual (and his or her writing) unique. You get a sense not only of a writer’s character but of his or her limitations too.

      PEN POINT The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

      In the 1940s the psychologist Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, also a psychologist, developed a personality test based on Jung’s typology that has become one of the foremost assessment tests administered by businesses. To Jung’s three sets of personality types they added judging and perceiving, which relate to how a person implements knowledge and information in the external world. The judging personality favors orderliness, structure, and decisiveness based upon internal knowledge, while the perceiving personality tends to improvise or seek new information.