Graphology

Graphology is the analysis of handwriting in an attempt to determine the writer's personality traits. Its methods and conclusions are not supported by scientific evidence, and as such it is considered to be a pseudoscience. However, graphological conclusions have been used as evidence in some historical court cases. It is sometimes conflated with forensic document examination techniques regarding handwriting, which is sometimes referred to as graphanalysis.

For the forensic examination of handwritten documents, see Graphanalysis. For the study of writing systems, see Graphemics.

Historian Laurens Schlicht states that while graphology failed to become a scientific discipline, many experts in experimental psychology and psychiatry participated in the endeavour to study graphology within a broader, more recognized science of expression, and that "to qualify something as pseudoscience can thus easily result in an unsystematic examination of a historical constellation of knowledge production." Graphology has been controversial for more than a century. Although proponents point to positive testimonials as anecdotal evidence of its utility for personality evaluation, these claims are have not been supported by scientific studies. It has been rated as among the most discredited methods of psychological analysis by a survey of mental health professionals.

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