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WRITTEN IN THE WRITING - PART 1

Graphologists Read Between the Letters

BY MILÈNE LARSSON

Sheila Lowe has been analyzing handwriting for over 40 years. She looks at one scribbled line and can tell you all kinds of secret stuff about yourself. It’s scary.

Vice: Are you a magician or something?

Sheila Lowe:
No, no. What we do is an analysis of the complex interaction between the brain, the eye, and the hand. We look at the rhythm, which is the contraction and release when you write. In the balance between that, we can tell what your blocks are. The more complicated a person’s handwriting is, the more they’re hiding. I’ve analyzed over 10,000 samples of handwriting and they always tell the truth, unfortunately.

Do you test people you meet in your personal life?

Eight years ago my daughter brought a new boyfriend home and asked me to analyze his handwriting. It was filled with red flags. I saw many difficult things like a head injury, which he confirmed. He’d been hit in the head on his job as a policeman. I could also see that he was controlling and had an explosive behavior. My daughter was very much in love and chose to disregard my warnings. A year later he killed her and himself.

Jesus Christ!

Yes, but it was a long time ago. I have sons, too—one of them is a dancer. He’s touring Europe right now opening for Chaka Khan. You’d like him, he’s tall and has a shaved head.

OK, I might meet up with him, but first you have to tell us who has the most beautiful handwriting in the world.

That would be Jane Goodall. The chimpanzee woman, you know? I like hers because it’s simple and not pretentious. I’ve never been a fan of flourished writing.

What are the nuts and bolts of your job?

There are several areas. The most common assignments I get are from employers looking to find out the basic personality of potential employees. People are complex so there is more to them than their handwriting, but the employers I’ve worked with often get back to me and say I was right. Then I also get assignments in police and court matters to analyze handwriting in forgery and child-custody cases. Sometimes I organize graphotherapy and do relationship compatibility.

What was the weirdest assignment you ever got?

I was asked to analyze Kurt Cobain’s suicide letter by the private detective Courtney Love had hired. She suspected Kurt had been murdered but the private detective suspected Courtney had killed him and then written the letter. He contacted me to confirm that. He was wrong! She certainly did not write that letter, Kurt did. But the detective still went to the magazines.

Do you ever analyze yourself?

That would be like doing brain surgery on myself! But I am aware of changes in my handwriting.

Any handwriting tips for us?

Some people think that you shouldn’t write with a pencil, only with a ballpoint pen or ink. I’d say just use what you feel comfortable with. It’s important to feel comfortable with the way you write. If you change anything, or force yourself to write in a certain way without knowing what you’re doing, it can create emotional problems. You write the way you do for a reason. It’s like kids sucking their thumbs—if you forbid them to do that they’ll do something else instead. Handwriting changes naturally over time. It’s shaped by the things you go through in life.

Is there anyone whose handwriting you’d really like to analyze?

I just analyzed Barack Obama! He’s a balanced, flexible, organized, creative, strong, and private person with good self-esteem. I’m pleased that he won the election! I was way nicer than I wanted to be with George Bush in my book—the truth is that his handwriting showed that he’s a superficial person who can’t be bothered. He has father issues too.

Sheila Lowe is currently finishing Dead Write, the third book in her best-selling Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting series (Penguin/Obsidian), out next fall. These analyses are extracts from her books The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis (Alpha) and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous (Thunder Bay), www.sheilalowe.com, www.claudiaroseseries.com.


CONTINUED
WRITTEN IN THE WRITING | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | >

See all articles by this contributor

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Comments

Anonymous, on Mar 19, 2009 wrote:
personality tests and just personality theories in general are way too reductionist for my taste... someone claiming to be able to figure out your personality through your handwriting sounds like they’re Freud-level full of shit
Anonymous, on Jan 28, 2009 wrote:
What a coincidence. Her interpretations of people’s handwriting match the preconceived ideas and personal prejudices she already has about them. Amazing!
Anonymous, on Jan 15, 2009 wrote:
i wonder if she has had to analize any handwriting before knowing who made it
Anonymous, on Jan 15, 2009 wrote:
I heard her software is very good
Anonymous, on Jan 14, 2009 wrote:
No states have outlawed handwriting analysis in the court systems. At least ten states have allowed graphologists to testify as to personality.
Anonymous, on Jan 14, 2009 wrote:
can’t a person write a certain way just because they like the way it looks?
Anonymous, on Jan 13, 2009 wrote:
christ people. give the woman a fucking break. do you want her to make up bullshit only for the sake of being off?
Anonymous, on Jan 12, 2009 wrote:
George Bush is a superficial person who can&#8217;t be bothered with father issues? Barack Obama is an all around cool guy? GIVE THIS WOMAN A NOBEL PRICE RIGHT NOW!
Anonymous, on Jan 9, 2009 wrote:
i think they do, but it doesn’t take a great lawyer to discredit the "science" of it
Anonymous, on Jan 9, 2009 wrote:
i didn’t think most states allowed handwriting analysis in trials anymore.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
a lot of these judgments sound like info you could pull from any Wikipedia biography... seems like pseudo-science!
lazy eyez killa, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
do news anchors. i’d love to see how smart the people giving us information truly are.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
i wish she hadnt dodged the bullet on the question about her own handwriting, but otherwise, this is a great interview and interview subject.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
damn. she developed a computer program to analyze handwriting. pretty impressive.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
are graphologists a dying breed? not many people are handwriting things now.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
let me get this right: courtney love hired a detective, who while under her employment went behind her back and attempted to pin the death on her?? then, when he found out he was wrong, he sold his story to magazines? why didn’t she sue the fuck out of this guy?
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
I bet she gets offers under the table to authenticate documents and autographs all the time.

-JM
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
PS here is the example i found-
bp1.blogger.com/_INdM6RukPx8/RuXtF7ULZtI/AAAAAAAAALc/zlWEnDJ
LhMU/s1600-h/GoodallBack.jpg
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
i had to look up jane goodall’s handwriting, i like all the handwriting here better than hers.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
wilde’s writing is weird. looks like abstract art or something
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
god, they have an idiot’s guide for fucking everything now. when does the guide to being me come out?
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
i believe in the merit of handwriting analysis, but god, i would be furious to lose a custody battle over it.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
That’s tragic about her daughter and son-in-law. Christ...
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
my handwriting looks different everyday. i’m scared to know what that means. probably bad news.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
did she know the identity of the writers of these letters or were they covered? i mean, it’s cool and all, but i could have told you fitzgerald was a romantic and such.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
hemingway is a "downhill" writer. that’s what my 2nd grade teacher would have called it anyway.
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
cool idea for an interview
Anonymous, on Jan 8, 2009 wrote:
i thought handwriting analysis had pretty much been written off. ba-dooom tishhhh

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