Paula Sassi on "Handwriting and History"

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The CVGS Program on Wednesday, 30 March featured graphologist Paula Sassi speaking on "Handwriting and History."  Her curriculum vitae is listed in CVGS Program on Wednesday, 30 March: "Handwriting and History."   Her website is Handwriting Consultants (http://www.handwritingconsultants.com/).


She noted that the handwriting of every person is unique - each person's brain controls their hand movements and there are variations in letter form, letter, word and line spacing, and letter slant.

Several different "art forms" throughout history were shown - from hieroglyphics, Gothic, and Spencerian "hands" to Palmer and O'Nealian copybook methods were shown as examples of how handwriting standards varied throughout history.

Paula said that graphologists use certain clues from the letter and word variations to identify personality characteristics.  for instance, a leftward slant denotes interest in the past, the self, the feminine; no slant may indicate someone in the present and independent; a slant to the right denoted interest in the future, other people, and the masculine.  How a person dashes t's, dots i's, and does lower zone tails (e.g., g, y) may reveal other characteristics. 

Her examples were handwritten samples from her collection - famous signatures in a hotel ledger, Civil War and World War II letters, autograph books, dance cards, family recipes, etc.  Paula pointed out some of the traits suggested by graphology in her presentation.  The stories from the ephemera were even more interesting than the handwriting analysis.