Handwriting analysis: loner with a strong self-concept

[vaneramos]

A sample from my handwritten journal.

Analysis from http://www.handwritingwizard.com/index.phtml, thanks to manhattan for the link.

Van is selective when picking friends. He does not trust everyone. He has a select group of people that are truly close to him, usually two or three. He is careful when choosing his inner circle of friends.

Van is very self-sufficient. He is trying not to need anyone. He is capable of making it on his own. He probably wants and enjoys people, but he doesn't "need" them. He can be a loner.

Remarkably accurate so far.

One way Van punishes hisself is self directed sarcasm. He is a very sarcastic person. Often this sarcasm and "sharp tongued" behavior is directed at hisself.

This part is so highly internalized that I'm hardly aware of it. I think of myself as an optimist, but my inner language can be deprecatory. Sometimes I express it as humour. Occasionally when I feel hurt I might direct it at others.

Van is capable of seeing far into the future. He plans two, three, even ten years in advance. Van has high goals and can literally see them being reached. He is very self-confident and has a high self-esteem. Van will reach whatever level of success he desires. Van has the self-concept that is possessed by less than two percent of the population. That two percent contains the most successful people in the world. When a person has a high self-esteem, he frees hisself to achieve an unlimited world of success. Van has achieved this frame of mind. Congratulations. He has the self-confidence to take great risk, thus reaping the rewards. If he does fail, it doesn't break his confidence. He knows he can do it! In retrospect of our research, this trait is one of the most desirable to possess, because it releases the writer to achieve his full potential. We recommend everyone raise their self-esteem to this level.

Despite much evidence to the contrary, this rings true too. At a basic level, I think well of myself and want to live this life to the fullest. This self-esteem is what helped me survive crippling depression. And in a sense I am successful now in that I'm doing a lot of what I want to do most: creative work. My biggest challenge is seeing how to fit my skills and goals into a world that values success on a different scale. At times I measure myself as a failure in other people's eyes, but I don't really believe it. I have confidence in what I do well.

In reference to Van's mental abilities, he has a very investigating and creating mind. He investigates projects rapidly because he is curious about many things. He gets involved in many projects that seem good at the beginning, but he soon must slow down and look at all the angles. He probably gets too many things going at once. When Van slows down, then he becomes more creative than before. Since it takes time to be creative, he must slow down to do it. He then decides what projects he has time to finish. Thus he finishes at a slower pace than when he started the project. He has the best of two kinds of minds. One is the quick investigating mind. The other is the creative mind. His mind thinks quick and rapidly in the investigative mode. He can learn quicker, investigate more, and think faster. Van can then switch into his low gear. When he is in the slower mode, he can be creative, remember longer and stack facts in a logical manner. He is more logical this way and can climb mental mountains with a much better grip.

Maybe the past nine years have simply been a massive slowdown to give myself time to be creative. I certainly tried to do too many projects when I was younger, and burned out.

I am aware of the two mental modes described here. My investigative mind and memory capacity have been damaged by chronic depression and anxiety. This fall I started challenging myself to read and remember more news, in an effort to restore my memory capacity.

Van will be candid and direct when expressing his opinion. He will tell them what he thinks if they ask for it, whether they like it or not. So, if they don't really want his opinion, don't ask for it!

It's true that I don't give a lot of compliments, but when I say them, I mean them. When asked for criticism, I will point out the good and the bad.

Van is a very emotional person with a broad range of emotions from the highest highs to the lowest lows. He feels emotional situations very strongly. He'll flash to the very peaks of elation, sweeping everything before him. Then, for some reason unknown to hisself, he will burn out emotionally. These moods swings can be very disturbing to him. Sometimes, he feels that he can no longer produce anything. But, after given some time alone to "recharge his emotional batteries", he will spring back into action. Because Van feels situations intensely, he relates easily to others' problems. If he is not careful, when he comes into contact with someone who is in a depressed frame of mind, he will also suffer the same emotions and change moods.

Hmm.

Van reacts impulsively, without much thought before hand. He may plan everything in detail before he even begins, then do it completely different when the time comes to carry it through.

This is true, with the exception that I rarely plan anything in detail.

Van has a strong need for affection. He thrives on touching and being touched. Van desires being told that he is loved, every day.

Mmm-hmmmmm! Did I tell you I'm a touchasexual?

He enjoys being the center of attention. He loves attention, sometimes he even retells stories that got him attention earlier.

Ahem!

Van has the possibility of being a actor or natural born salesperson, simply because he relates so well to other people. He likes expressing how he feels, what he is doing, and what he plans to do. He is a people person.

That part sounds contradictory to the second paragraph. I think of myself much more as a loner than a people person. Nevertheless I'm happiest in good company, when I feel a sense of accord with those around me. And when I trust someone, I seek a deep sense of authenticity and communion with him or her.

He will work most efficiently in a people orientated job as opposed to a job working alone on an assembly line (that would drive him insane.)

Useful information, that.

People that write their letters in an average height and average size are moderate in their ability to interact socially. According to the data input, Van doesn't write too large or too small, indicating a balanced ability to be social and interact with others. Read more about his emotional expressiveness in the section on emotions and slant.

Here again, I'm not sure whether I agree. I would prefer to be more at ease around people, but the first paragraph, which states that I do not trust easily, is definitive.

Comments

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting Van. And thanks for the link. I may try that myself and see what it has to say about my "scribbles".

Seeing that it's fairly close in accuracy means it's worthy a try.

This is something I've noticed with your posts is your introspective look at yourself, learning more and more of who/how you work and think and finding ways to get out of the funk, so to speak you've been in and to try and move forward.

I applaud you for your journey and how you are choosing to take an active role in it.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I would never use the word funk, which dismisses and minimalizes the reality of depression.

I'm happy if you find my journal encouraging, but it is not essentially a journey of recovery. The journey is life, and writing is my life. Yes, I sometimes use it as a from of therapy, but my writing process will not allow me to remain in that mode. This journal is essentially an artistic expression.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

You are right in that funk isn't the right word and having suspect I've had some form of depression up until a few months ago, thanks to Effexor.

The fact that you are looking at yourself and seem to know yourself as well as you do is inspiring, even if the intent of the journal isn't in that context.

I do agree that the journey is life, however the journey takes on aspects of life at the moment, hence the "fork in the road" of life and the fact that we have to choose which fork to take is taking an active stance in our own lives, even if it's life long.

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

While many forms of divination are useful for prompting introspection, be it fortune cookies or palm reading, graphology stands out as a particularly troubling discipline. Graphologists are relentless in promoting their work, and make broad claims as to its usefulness, leading many companies to use it as (for example) a method of selecting among job candidates.

Any test used for such purposes needs to meet a high standard of fairness. Graphology would be defensible if were it not for the apparent failure of graphologists to predict personality traits on the basis of handwriting alone in reasonably controlled studies. (In particular, the study must control for content, by having the writer copy a standard document.) While it is certainly reasonable to think that graphology could predict personality traits, I have yet to see any convincing demonstration of this.

It has been hard to find primary evidence one way or another, but the scientific consensus is overwhelmingly against it. A short report with several good references is here:

http://www.psyasia.com/factsheets/graphology_in_personnel_assessment.pdf

For this reason, I consider the way graphology is practiced to be unethical, in the same way racism is unethical - it encourages discrimination on the basis of characteristics that are largely outside the control of the writer, and it unfairly excludes people from real, material opportunities.

I know that you have no ill intent with this, but I urge you to not support or promote this practice.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Certainly not, I simply found the results interesting, even elucidating. I actually have two types of handwriting, the more comfortable form I use in my journal and letters, and a faster, upright scrawl which manifests when I'm taking notes. It would be interesting to see what the analysis says about that.

I did not realize graphology was being used for personnel assessment. For that purpose it would be no more valid than astrology.

[that-dang-otter.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think that all such things are potentially useful, whether or not they are "accurate" or not. Simply prompting the imagination - in the style of "she loves me, she loves me not", or the magic 8-ball - is a good way to help the thinking process, so long as you don't take it too seriously.

I mean, I know I'm kind of missing the point of your post, and I do wonder whether this observation about graphology even matters in the real world.

But graphologists are very disreputable people. The way they blithely judge people without any justification whatsoever, often changing their lives in the process, really and truly appalls me. It's very hard to sit silently whenever the subject arises. Fortunately, they aren't popular enough to make a real difference - only a small fraction of job candidates are rejected for that reason.

So I feel a constant conflict, not just with graphology, but with other forms of divination that are sometimes taken too seriously. I don't know how much it all matters. Maybe a little, maybe a lot.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I disparage—in a good-humoured way—all forms of divination. I mean I am a typical Pisces in many ways, but honestly! How can anybody take it seriously?

It provokes the question of why this particular test appealed to me. The truth is I take my handwriting very seriously; it is my artistic medium. I feel different kinds of connection happening (between my subconscious mind and the page) when I write with a pen and when I use a keyboard. The pen has a stronger and more poetic flow; it is more honest. Inevitably I attribute mystical qualities to my handwriting, and it's hard to resist this divination tool.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I often find myself nodding my head to the things they say about Geminis. But I always flip to the "Gemini" section of the astrology books. What would be neat is to take all twelve zodiac descriptions, remove identifying information, and see if I consistently picked myself as a Gemini then.

That said, the other way to take things like this is the way you seem to be taking it, which is: whatever my writing may or may not reveal, the fact that I notice certain things about myself and say "aha, that sounds right" or "nope, that doesn't sound right" is, in itself, interesting. :-)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder how much people let something like astrology define who they are. Or Meyers-Briggs for that matter. My personality went through some major changes after my marriage ended, beyond what personality tests can account for. My handwriting, on the other hand, is essentially unchanged since university. If these ideas help us understand one another better, that's fine. But as a tool for evaluating people?