Handwriting is divided into three zones: upper, middle and lower. Small letters such as i,n, m, represent the middle zone; letters containing upper length, such as d, l, h, form part of both middle and upper zone; letters containing lower length, such as g, y, form part of both middle and lower zone.

The lower zone uncovers the material and physical life, sensuality, and the world of the writer's dreams, and his sub­conscious life.

Middle zone expresses the conscious, unimaginative and daily life. The writer's practical intelligence, and his adapta­bility are discovered in the formation of the small letters.

The upper zone discloses the writer's intellectual and spir­itual life, and his imaginative power and creative ideas.

Preponderance of the lower zone:

Sample 10. The loops are large and emphasized in the writing of those individuals who are physically active and who feel an affinity towards the earth and its practical needs. The farmer, hunter, and manual worker, people who are interested in material things, merchants, industrialists, and especially those who are dominated by greed, emphasize the lower zone. Sensualists, using heavy pressure, make long de­scending strokes with large fat loops.

Preponderance of the middle zone (Sample 1) reveals prac­tical people who are interested in their daily life, and who adapt themselves to reality. The writer's personal interests appear in involved traits and leftward flourishes. These writers are generally narrow-minded and attach too much sig­nificance to their unimportant worries.

In a preponderance of the upper zone, (Sample 11) we find the upper strokes conspicuous, as, for instance, in the writing of intellectuals, artists, scientists, and religious and idealistic persons. In the script of the latter the i-dots are high and the whole writing ascends to the higher sphere. A good adjust­ment of the writing and plasticity and individuality in the shaping of the letters reflect the genius and exalted person, as well as the dreamer and adventurer. We find in the futile flourishes of the upper zone the unbalanced and delirious fantasies of the insane, and all their exaggerated enthusiasms.

DEFINITIONS OF GRAPHOLOGICAL TERMS

Connections: Strokes connecting the letters of a word.

Disconnections: Lapses of strokes connecting the letters of a word.

Garland: A gracious oval stroke as in a garland.

Arcade: An arched stroke resembling the architectural arcade.

Angularity: A stroke or letter with a sharp angle.

Threadlike: An almost invisible connecting stroke, termi­nating into nothinginess.

The four graphological terms for connecting strokes are: garlands, arcades, angularity, and threadlike. These terms are also applied to the letters, u, v, w, m, and n, which often resemble strokes rather than letters.

A writing in which each word is written with one continu­ous stroke, each letter joined to the succeeding one is con­sidered connected writing. This implies that the writer has logical reasoning powers. The arcade, as in Sample 8, is like the architectural arcade.

When we speak of a large degree of connections, we mean that the larger words are written in one movement; a medio­cre degree comprises a group of words containing four or five letters; a slight degree means everything less than that.

An interruption made in the connecting stroke by an I dot or a t crossing, as in Sample 9, is not considered a dis­connection.

We assume that a large degree of connection must obvi­ously signify the adaptability of a person, particularly if there is a rightward slant and a steady upward direction of the basic line.

Next, there is the theoretical adaptability which may be the vertical writing or either the rightward or leftward slant. This means that the strict connecting strokes are made by a logical person or a scientist who dominates the connections in his writing.

Then we have the moral adaptability of a person who over-bridges all his natural impulses as shown in strict connections of all letters even in the longest words.

If the writing persists in consistent connections without a gap between any letters and has no negative traits in the whole scheme, we can rightfully assume that the writer takes a practical and moral attitude.

However, we cannot make a virtue only of consistent regu­larity of the connecting stroke. The reason for this will be explained in a later chapter.

CONNECTIONS

From the manner in which small letters are shaped and connected with each other, we can see how the writer adapts himself to his environment and the circumstances of his life. His affections, or his indifference, his inhibitions or emotions are reflected here. While small letters may be shaped after the school model, they still follow the four different angles: garlands, angularity, arcades and thread or spider-like. The genius and the highly developed intellectual, and all inde­pendent minds, create an individual style of writing.

GARLANDS

Sample 1. This generally uncovers the good-hearted na­ture of an easily approachable person, who is friendly and sociable, with an adaptability to new conditions of life.

Large and rounded style with light pressure indicates an unstable and easily influenced writer who acts upon all im­pulses and emotions. He is extremely volatile and easily shaken by his impulses and moods. Such a writer lacks will­power and often loses himself in a superficial life.

An excessively rounded style with a rightward slant indicates an emotional and altruistic person, one who is un­derstanding and in sympathy with human nature. Demon­stratively maternal women write a rounded style with heavy pressure. We find the garland connections in handwritings of social and accessible natures and also in those business men of practical intelligence who have dealings with different types of people. Impressionable individuals, artists, and psy­chologists often write garlands.

ANGULARITY

Sample 12. This style of writing is typical of self-contained and reserved characters who are prudent and discreet. They are neither pliable nor easily influenced, and although they adapt themselves to the necessities of circumstances, their feelings and real natures remain concealed.

Angularity reveals the obstinate character who tends to impose upon others. It also indicates an active, energetic, and persistent nature which does not swerve from its feelings and principles. In addition, those people who rebel against customs, manners, and social laws write at times angular letters.

ARCADES

Sample 8. This expresses a lack of spontaneity, and gen­erally appears in the narrow writing of an inhibited person. We find it in people who attach much importance to conven­tionality and formality. We also see it in the handwritings of those individuals who live in an environment full of mis­understanding. The arcade is almost always a characteristic of some kind of artificiality.

On the other hand, the arcade which has a unique special individual shaping of the letters reveals a creative instinct, the wish to build. It often characterizes an artistic sense and is reflected in the handwritings of inventors, architects and engineers, as well as in those of the artistic genius. (Sample 18.)

Max Pulver discovers this angle in the writings of children and adolescents who were too severely educated, and who can­not, as a result, adapt themselves to the authority of a rigid environment. Arcades and angularity are present in the writ­ings of retarded children, and in those of criminals.

Sample 13. Regular writing coupled with angularity and heavy pressure, discloses the man of fact who is attached to his duties, whose nature is able to struggle with and over­come obstacles and hardships. We also find this in stubborn and inflexible characters. Angularity with light pressure and leftward slant, however, discloses the timid and inhibited character. Such writers suffer quietly, keeping themselves isolated and safe from approach.

In considering the narrow angle we generally find that it evinces prudence and reserve. Regularity coupled with nar­rowness is a sign of extreme self-control and a capacity for work and endurance, and characterizes a writer who will waste neither emotions nor money.

Inhibition, hypochondria, timidity, and fear of life and fu­ture are also reflected in narrowness.

If the initials are narrow, it means timidity based on in­feriority complex and a sense of insufficiency. We find it in restrained characters who cannot easily make friends.

Sample 14. The sharp and angular style with leftward and inharmonious letters shows the egotist as well as the sadist.

The mixed angle (alternately garlands, angularity and ar­cades) indicates an adaption to various circumstances, an indi­vidual who is not always balanced in his actions and reactions.

THREAD-SPIDER-LIKE

Sample 15. The thread or spider-like angle is found in the irregularity of the basic line which reflects the writer's nervous impressionability and emotionality. Those who write this angle react quickly to various stimuli of the external and internal worlds; they are impressionable and com­pliant, and know how to adapt themselves to the different conditions of life. The writer is unstable, nevertheless, and his moods are inconsistent. He will be easily interested in, and attracted by, new people and events. Versatile, refined, and intellectual writers with alert thoughts, unstable wills, and unbalanced emotions, write with the threadlike angle.

This style of writing is used by the psychologist who com­prehends and scents with an intuitive mind, as well as by the writer with weak and evasive tendencies.

The slant or angle expresses the emotional life of the writer—his power to love. The rightward angle generally shows affection; the vertical is ruled by the mind; and the leftward implies a cold-blooded and indifferent nature. When the angle slants both ways it reflects a dual nature. Pressure indicates the writer's innate constitution, his energy and physical resistance, and also the presence of diseases and organic disturbances. Pressure expresses the writer's sensu­ality and emotions as well as his mental strength and vitality.

The intellectual writer avoids futile strokes and often does not use connecting strokes. He displays simplicity in style and does not care to waste time or effort on extravagances of movement, or in material ways.

On the negative side, the disconnected writing with nar­row and arcade letters, accompanied by a leftward slant, re­veals a fear of life, and the writer does not dare face responsibilties. This person retreats from society.

However, the avaricious person who writes with a discon­nected script always maintains a firm structure in his writing. He still operates on the constructive side but remains the solitary person, in spite of fame and money gained by his life.

When the structure of the writing is dissolved, rather than disconnected, it reveals acute negative qualities. Samples of this type will be shown in a later chapter.

THE REASON FOR DISCONNECTIONS

When the letters in a word are separated (without the con­necting stroke) we find an expression of diplomacy, an ability to mix socially and the talent to sense things intuitively. Many inventors and those who possess independence of thought and action write with a variety of disconnections. This gap in the connecting stroke is analogous to taking a breath, the pause that refreshes and permits inspiration to come through and into our consciousness. Sample 16 is a good example of an intuitive and independent thinker.

In some writings with disconnected letters which can be connected easily, we discover that the person is absorbed in his work but is perfectly able to manage his practical life. Sample 17 is an example of such a writing.

Sometimes we find a combination of disconnected letters which indicates that the person senses the situation before he has decided to act upon it.

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