Signature Moves

(This blog was originally posted on September 17, 2015)

           Last year, an article in the Los Angeles Times evaluated the way various baseball players sign autographs. In it, the president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation, Sheila Lowe, interpreted the traits of several members of the Los Angeles Dodgers based on characteristics of their signatures. I agreed with many of Ms. Lowe’s characterizations of the writing she analyzed, such as her interpretation of the left-slant in one player’s long strokes (possibly holding onto the past) and the angular, illegible style of another (intelligence and impatience). Probably the most telling characteristic of any of the signatures she analyzed in this article were the extra loops or doodles that Ms. Lowe observed in Jered Weaver’s signature, which she interpreted as a possible wind-up for a pitch.

As I have explained in my previous blog titled And Your Handwriting Says, your handwriting is a manifestation of what you consciously think that is motivated by a subconscious ideomotor (automatic physical) response. In other words, the way you write—the shape and size of each letter, whether you connect the letters and even the speed of your writing—are literally a reflection of your behavior and personality traits. Unlike the body of the main text of your writing, your signature indicates how you would like to be seen by others. It is not necessarily indicative of who you really are or what you are really like. Someone whose signature matches or is most like the body of the writing tends to be very no-nonsense; “what you see is what you get.” The opposite would be true your signature is very different from the rest of your writing. 

Finally, remember that athletes and other celebrities often stylize their signatures to be a kind of informal trademark when they sign autographs for fans. Some add flourishes while others just sign initials or even make an ineligible scrawl (filiform writing) as if to subconsciously conceal their “true” identity. Without access to the rest (body) of a handwriting sample it is very difficult to really interpret what these athletes’ signatures truly reveal about their subconscious behavior.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015