The Hidden Danger of Changing Your Handwriting

Recently, I happened to see an image “shared” on Facebook, a cartoon drawing of a pen with this text under it from an anonymous source:

“A change in handwriting changes an individual’s personality. An introvert can become an extrovert and a lazy person energetic. Thus various negative characteristics of an individual can be removed by change in handwriting.”

Nobody who is well trained in handwriting analysis would make such an irresponsible statement.

While it’s possible to become less introverted and more inspired and energetic, for example, through grapho-therapy (training your subconscious through handwriting exercises to do your bidding, thus attempting to change your personality and life), the change won’t be dramatic, unless the blocks to extroversion and being energetic were only temporary to begin with. More about the subconscious mind here.

It’s not unusual for a person to be innately, and unavoidably introverted or lethargic, and nothing will change how they are, short of shock therapy, and even that would be fleeting.

The “you can create anything you want” crowd and the inspiration junkies always seem to forget that there is a lot in life that you can’t change or control, and that people, generally, are who they are and don’t change very much.

Without a certified graphologist (handwriting analysis) designation, a person won’t know what to change in their handwriting in attempting to eliminate negative personality traits.

You may be surprised to find out that seemingly negative handwriting traits (e.g., “messiness”) are often not very negative at all, and what you may perceive as positive (e.g., excessive neatness), may be part of several veiled handwriting traits that collectively represent some of the worst possible and most dangerous personality characteristics.

At most, through changing your handwriting, you can try to modify subconscious fears (e.g., fear of expression, fear of intimacy, et al.), and it’s dangerous to attempt to alter subconscious defense patterns through handwriting. Your subconscious mind will rebel; you’ll suffer anxiety, nervousness, sleeplessness, or worse.

The handwriting analysis skeptics will disagree with what I say above, but I have a proposition for them: Send me a digital image of your handwriting sample—a few spontaneous paragraphs will do, signed and dated—and I will instruct you to make specific changes in your handwriting to be practiced twice daily through handwriting exercises.

The changes will include, aside from completely removing your unique unconscious defenses represented in your script, making your subconscious mind vulnerable and exposed, basic alterations related to zonal balance, compression, pressure, spacing, slant, contraction/release, connectivity, connectives, and more. It will take some practice to write in a totally new way, and the constant pressure to revert back to your usual way of writing will be enormous.

The result will be mental torture. It will feel as if you are going through some sort of withdrawal; you’ll endure absolute apprehension and unexplainable heightened fear, and you’ll likely have insomnia. You will experience firsthand your subconscious attempting to regain control after you symbolically pull the rug from under its feet.

You will also be amazed at how, without even consciously trying, your subconscious mind will begin to force new handwriting patterns through your script to compensate for the emblematic defenses that were stripped from your natural handwriting.

It’s advised that anyone attempting to change their personality through their handwriting seek guidance from someone well-trained in graphology. A solid background in developmental psychology is very helpful too. Also, you must first know what you want to change about your personality (before consulting with a handwriting analyst) and focus exclusively on that; it’s a good idea to avoid trying to change too much at once.

Copyright © 2012 Scott Petullo