Eugen Peter Schwiedland (1863-1936), was an Austrian born

graphologist who lived in Vienna. His contribution to graphology is the Graphometer, that shows how the slant of your handwriting indicates your personality. Graphologists are still around today, though their jobs may be in jeopardy. Graphology, the study of hand writing to analyze personality and character, need actual handwriting. The rise of the keyboard has great diminished the availability of handwriting for study. Graphologists are divided about the amount of writing a person has to do for their personality to be reflected via their handwriting. If you only sign your signature and write a quick note saying “Buy more milk”, does your handwriting connect with your true inner self?

Sadly many famous signatures can be anything from a stamp to auto signature pen these days. Secretaries and staff of the famous have also learned to imitate the signature of their bosses, thus saving precious wrist and hand muscles of say ,the Kardashians, for important things like counting their money!

Graphologists still believe they have much to contribute, including looking at historic documents to determine the personalities and character of famous people. The only problem is that we know a lot about the character and personalities of most famous people before we look at their handwriting.

Graphologists like to promote their work as “science”.

However, this article, by Kathi McKnight of the “Handwriting University International”, indicates the sad level of science, or as Sharon Hill would say ”sciencey” work.

The Schweidland chart is used in the article to study President Abraham Lincoln’s signature and also that of President George Washington. Amazingly these presidents signatures reflect what most of us already know about them.

But, the graphologist, Kathi McKnight makes one glaring error that even the average elementary school age child would not make. She gets basic history wrong.

It seems, George Washington had a very emotional slant!

(The below is from the “Weekly Stokes Newsletter”, put out by HandwritingUniversity.com, which offers courses so you too can become a graphologist. A keyboardologist would be my personal recommendation for a career, and I’m sure there will be online classes for that soon.)

An emotional slant like that can also lead to impulsiveness… remember the story of the cherry tree?? When he was a small boy, George got a hatchet for his birthday. He impulsively cut down a small cherry tree to try the hatchet out! The story goes that his father was angry with him and although he was afraid, he told his father the truth, that yes, he did cut down the cherry tree; and his father was proud that he told the truth.

The story of George Washington and the cherry tree was debunked well before I went to elementary school in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Parson Weems, in his 1800 biography of George Washington made the myth of the honest young George who just couldn’t resist the impulse to chop down a cherry tree popular(well just look at his handwriting slant).

Weems is also known as the originator of the myth of Washington praying at Valley Forge. I’m sure that George Washington got up to as much trouble as any other young boy with a blade, such as an ax or knife. Washington was known to pray, but Weems was more interested in making up history rather than recording it correctly. He helped create the image of Washington that influences us all, including credulous graphologists, today.

Related articles