How Graphology leads us to the heart of personality
dr. Lidia Fogarolo, graphologist
Handwriting Expert - Questioned Document Examiner
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Interview to Lidia Fogarolo
PWI (Professional Women International) Magazine has interviewed Lidia Fogarolo on Forensic Sciences and Graphology
Graphology, this mysterious and intriguing word … I guess there are still many biases, myths and confusion about graphology …
Lidia, for example, what do you think about the dialogue (1) where Sherlock Holmes pontificates about the psychological analysis of handwriting (in Guy Ritchie’s movie “ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”)?
What is Graphology (or Handwriting Analysis)?
Every action we take can be analyzed at least from two different points of view: what we are doing (adaptation) and what we express (expression). These two facets are both highly important in order to understand personality.
Handwriting clearly represents a product both of adaptation (use of conventional signs) and expression (personal elaboration of graphic shapes).
Graphology’s subject of study in is handwriting seen as an expressive behavior; this method is based on a psychological rule saying that every unconsciousor conscious psychic content must become manifest through some kind of expression: all expressive behavior forms are expression of the human being and his/her distinctive features.
Handwriting, as well as all forms of expressive behavior, is highly consistent and does not change much in a lifetime. However, among all the expressive behaviors, it is the richest in informations about personality found till nowadays.
The spontaneous graphic movement reveals all about an individual, seen through criteria based on the two pillars of graphological interpretation: analogy and symbolism.
Morettian graphology video lectures
Spoken language: Italian
Lidia Fogarolo, Personality Traits in Handwriting, EMP February 2012, p. 460
The Morettian graphology textbook Personality Traits in Handwriting has already been translated in English.
As this manual will reveal, the Morettian sign system is a unique tool in the psychological and graphological landscape; it can diagnose and also be predictive, owing to the huge number of personality traits considered. Its overall theoretical framework is quite simple, based on readily understandable assumptions which point out the relation between psychic and graphical features; it can be applied under both clinical and everyday life conditions because it is an intriguing tool for gaining access to the basic inner structures of the individual psyche and its essential components: sentiment and intelligence. In this sense, it is not a therapeutic but a diagnostic tool. However, the opportunity to gain direct access to the personality’s inner core can be a therapeutic action whenever “seeing” a structure from the outside leads to an understanding of its dynamics, in an almost deterministic perspective; therefore, it lays the foundations for both self-reconciliation and reconciliation with others.
To complete the volume over 250 samples of handwriting are presented, for educational purposes, many of which belong to characters who, in very different ways, have made their mark on politics (Hitler, Churchill, Obama), sciences (Newton, Darwin, Tesla), literature (Hemingway, Woolf, Buck), the arts (Picasso, Canova, Mozart) and religion (Pope John XXIII, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pope John Paul II).
Lidia Fogarolo, Personality traits in handwriting, Chapter 7 – Rhythm
Why the movement creates development and psychological identity (October 2012)
The first characteristic associated with life is without doubt movement: whether it is understood as development influenced by heredity or as learning due to a process of interaction with the environment, the process of individual maturation is closely linked to the personality’s ability to move – in both a physical and psychological sense – from one situation to another, from one level of understanding to a consequent level.
Movement, understood as the ability to responds to what life puts in front of us, is an extremely complex individual characteristic, one that can be classified according to highly diverse quantitative and qualitative criteria that combine together to give life to what in graphology is called graphical rhythm. For example, the quantitative criteria that respond to the question “How fast is the movement?” require a qualitative definition able to specify whether the rapid movement is organised, or conversely impatient, unstable and unstructured. Therefore many evaluation criteria have to be integrated in order to identify the typology, structure and efficiency of the movement under analysis. (see more)
You can also read:
- Objective criteria for measuring graphical speed (ib.)
- The basic requirement for spontaneity: the Fluid sign
- The obstructed movement: the Jerky sign
Lidia Fogarolo, Personality traits in handwriting, Chapter 2 – The Curved-Angular Dyad
An essential interpretative category for understanding the personality (April 2012)
From the Italian graphologist Girolamo Moretti’s point of view, the origin of the curved movement, which determines the drive towards altruism, is linked to the inability to create clear boundaries between the self and others, so that the personality adheres to the demands of others as if they were its own. This is an instinctive disposition of sentiment which goes beyond reasoning, and is therefore implemented automatically. In contrast, the angular movement stems the tendency of sentiment to adhere entirely to the point of view of others because it employs snags (angles), that is to say more or less frequent and intense stopping points which prevent the Self from surrendering immediately. In this sense it is an indicator of egoism since it provides greater protection to the needs of the individual. (see more)
You can also read:
- The altruistic movement: the Curved sign
- The egoistic movement: the Angular sign
- Reactivity and aggression: the A Angles sign
- Tenacity and stubbornness: the B Angles sign
- Psychological considerations on the Curved-Angular dyad
- The art of diplomacy: the C Angle sign
- Lidia Fogarolo
- gennaio 1st, 2003