(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
