Graphology
ANALYSIS
#4: COMPATIBILITY REPORT:
by Mary Black
MBIG (Dip.)
"Compatibility", or the comparison of one handwriting with another to determine how well two
(or more) individuals will live or work together, is one of the most popular features of
graphology. This month, Mary Black, a Graduate Member and an Examiner with the Institute,
demonstrates one of
the applications of 'compatibilty': assessing a personal relationship.
A client asked me to look at his parents' handwriting. They ran a grocery
business together in Cornwall and are long since dead, but he was
fascinated by the fact that they were such different characters and yet
were extremely good friends throughout their lives.
The Mother:
Click here for a full sample of this handwriting
She is a colourful and emotional personality who is easily excitable
and upset. Her inner contentment and degree of self-confidence varies,
creating inner tension and uncertainty which in turn affects her moods
and feelings. This inner touchiness and sensitivity means she can therefore be
very unpredictable and inconsistent and her reactions will depend upon
how she feels at any particular time. She is very emotional and
impulsive - almost to the point where she lacks control - and although
she tries to apply the brakes to steady herself, she has difficulty in
understanding her reactions and therefore finds it hard to discipline
them.
(Arrhythmic, jerky currency, variable slant with some marked right,
small and fluctuating middle zone, wavy baseline, irregular writing,
variable pressure, 50/50 speed.)
She hates to be restricted in any way and can therefore become easily
agitated or frustrated. This in turn leads to irritation, impatience or argument.
She approaches things very directly, making her position clear and tending not to back down, preferring a contentious settlement of differences to compromise. She gives people the "benefit" of her opinion and can be quite stubborn and narrow-minded at times and closed to other people's points of view. To this extent she can be quite awkward and won't take advice even when it's given with the best of intentions. She likes to be right and can be bossy or authoritarian by habit, dominating others if she is allowed to.
(Increasing word size, angles, variable pressure, connected, hooks, roofing strokes, potlids, downward endstrokes.)
At other times she can act completely differently - there are times when she will be very
uncertain and ask for a second opinion, although this doesn't necessarily mean that she takes on board the advice she is given. Close relationships with her are therefore difficult as people never know how she is going to react.
(Small and fluctuating middle zone, fluctuating upper zone, hesitant and jerky currency, variable slant.)
All this restlessness and irritability means that she finds it hard to relax and calm down. She is therefore prone to a lot of emotional stress and nervous tension and she needs to exercise more control over her sudden moods and outburst of emotion.
(Arrhythmic, jerky currency, variable slant with some marked right, small and fluctuating middle zone, wavy baseline, irregular writing, variable pressure, gaps within words.)
Her social life and relationships mean a lot to her and she will find activities that bring her into contact with people. Anxiously dependent on others, she needs to be wanted and would never be happy on her own. She is talkative and excitable - a compulsive chatter-box - and mixes indiscriminately with people often exaggerating and embellishing what she's saying in order to appear more captivating. Not a good listener, she tends to dominate a conversation and uses an informal approach even when formality is called for. She tends to be very spontaneous and can be over-intrusive at times, lacking discretion and tact to the point where she invades others privacy or blurts things out and puts her foot in it without thinking.
(Overall right/marked right slant, narrow margins, narrow overall and word spacing, broad, connected, increasing word size, open lower case letters, excessive punctuation.)
In reality she has difficulty feeling at ease with others - however much she appears to be outgoing and however much she needs people, the contact makes her anxious.
(Right but variable slant, poor currency, broad but fluctuating width, narrow but fluctuating word spacing, fluctuating and small middle zone.)
She has many different approaches to a task, but it is not always a
rational or logical one. She doesn't like wasting time and is not afraid to take the initiative, but tends to act on the spur of the moment. She lacks organisation and planning skills and so just jumps in and then has to muddle her way through. Her undisciplined approach means that although she might get the overall job done, she is not terribly practical about it and needs help in carrying things out. She can't prioritise and is easily distracted by external demands of other people. When the going gets tough, she can't sustain things and in an emergency will lose her head. In addition, she is an emotional thinker and decision-maker. Logically she may see the answer one way, but emotionally she will see it another, so she tends to change her mind unexpectedly. She also starts reconsidering just when everything seems settled and worries about it for a long time afterwards, even though there's nothing she can do about it.
(Disorderly layout, entanglement, irregularity, variable right/marked right slant, jerky currency.)
The Father:
Click here for a full sample of this handwriting
Reserved and with somewhat unassuming manner, he has a limited need for self-expression and doesn't seek the limelight. A follower rather than a leader, he is disinclined to venture beyond accepted norms and has few interests, being happy to settle for a quiet life. He accepts people in authority, conforming willingly to their advice. He feels safest in an environment that doesn't change very much and where there are unlikely to be any sudden crises and lacks the initiative and creativity to overcome obstacles and pursue his aims with any great willpower.
(Small, monotonous rhythm, regular, light pressure.)
Although he appears to be even-tempered, he is actually emotionally intense underneath. His inner shyness and sensitivity causes him great worry and anxiety and he is far more easily upset and offended by others' behaviour than he shows. He pretends not to notice what other people do and would feel very guilty if he let go and said exactly what he thought, but it actually takes him a long time to get over any hurt or criticism. However, he hates violence and noisy conflicts and so will settle differences by conciliatory means, yielding and adopting and fitting in without a struggle. He therefore has to exercise great discipline over emotions, but because he tends to bottle up his hurt or anger, there are unexpected resentful outbursts which show up as defensive reactions. He may continually criticise others so that he can protect his self-esteem, or become very irritable over trifles, for example.
(Marked right slant, light pressure, sharp penstrokes, arcade with some angle, potlids, downward t-bars.)
Generally however, he is very private and gives little away about his true self, needing his own space and presenting himself as he wants to be seen, which gives him the security he needs . He is not good at initiating conversations and was probably brought up in a "correct" atmosphere where proper social behaviour was deemed important and he was obliged to behave in a proper and conventional way. Subconsciously however he also needs company and, under the right circumstances, can be quite talkative, but in a rather pedantic, mundane and self-interested way. He can take over a conversation by talking about his own personal likes and dislikes and because of this is not a good listener.
(Some arcades, small, monotonous, regular, marked right slant, fluctuating width and word spacing, narrow margins.)
He won't come up with new ideas or suggest changes and can't take on big tasks, but because he puts limits on himself, he usually accomplishes whatever he sets out to do. Steady, thorough and conscientious, he has a methodical and organised approach. He likes system and routine, almost to the point of obsession and is painstakingly exact in his attention to detail, in a pernickety, pedantic and finicky way. Indeed he is an instinctive economiser and likes to make use of everything as fully as possible.
(Slow, monotonous, regular, clear layout and spacing, contracted.)
Hesitant and indecisive, he feels inadequate when faced with a decision. He doesn't solve them with ease or confidence and unless someone's supervising him, he won't be able to decide what is and isn't important. He may attach undue importance to the wrong thing, or to things of little consequence. He procrastinates and won't be hurried, mulling things over and wanting to find out if there are any hazards before starting .He worries about unforeseen problems in case there hasn't been sufficient preparation, but once he does make up his mind however, he is guided by certain favourite ideals and will stick to rules come what may, even if there's a quicker way of doing something.
(50/50 speed, but changing degree of connection, slow, wide baseline spacing, arcade, left tendencies, starting strokes.)
Compatibility:
In a lot of ways they were very different. He usually kept his true feelings to himself, whereas she tended to blurt things out. She was volatile and a bit bossy, he was happier to give in and settle for a quiet life. He believed in economy, she hadn't a clue what it meant. He was meticulous and methodical; she was disorganised and impractical. Neither solved problems easily - he was very cautious and procrastinated like mad. She jumped straight in and then worried about it afterwards.
However, because she was such an impractical and disorganised individual, she needed to construct her life in some way and this is what her husband provided for her - he gave her the stability of routine and order when she panicked. Her need to be sociable - albeit a rather one-sided affair - allowed him to take the back seat that he wanted. You can just imagine the scenario in the shop - her doing all the up-front social stuff and catching up on all the latest village gossip, allowing him to take a nice, quiet back seat and concentrate on keeping those books in order!
This is not to say that there was no conflict - he could be quite critical of her and she very argumentative with him, but they learn to tolerate their strengths and weaknesses rather than work against them.
Mary Black may be contacted by phone: Tel: 01993 844279
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