Junior is at sleepover camp and you are tracking his activities: a trickle of thumb written texts, a handful of acronyms and emoticons. Do you ever feel nostalgic, remembering handwritten letters from yesteryear? Or, like many, do you consider handwriting obsolete, preferring a clean, sharp font to Junior's illegible scrawl?
Some think that when we gain new handheld technologies, nothing is lost. I'm not so sure.
SLIDESHOW: WHAT'S IN A CELEBRITY'S SIGNATURE?
Many experts claim that the process involved in acquiring a fluent cursive handwriting is something like Pilates for the brain. According to handwriting expert Beryl Gilbertson, handwriting production uses at least 80 per cent of the cerebral cortex and almost all of the deeper structures. If the act of handwriting engages a range of cognitive processes and underlying mechanisms; it means that the child who laboriously shapes the curves and lines of every "p" and "d" is getting a brain workout, well beyond the one we get when we perform a static, repetitive movement like keyboarding. Compare mastering the violin with playing the triangle. They are both expressive activities but one is that much more complex.
And then there is the function of handwriting as a form of expression. Do you remember being 13 or 15 years old and signing your name, again and again, on the back cover of your notebook, mastering the insignia which would ultimately be yours? As it turns out, clinicians in Israel and in Europe have been analyzing handwriting for decades now, systematically deciphering personality from chicken scratch. If personality is somehow encoded in handwriting, can we not assume that the act of handwriting, much like drawing or singing, promotes self-expression and is psychologically useful?
As a clinician who analyzes handwriting within the context of psychotherapy, people routinely ask me whether handwriting can be analyzed now that some writers, so acclimated to computers, have a script that is rough and unpracticed. I tell them that if handwriting goes the way of the dodo bird, I will still have a day job.
Trained clinicians can analyze virtually anything -- simple drawings, made-up stories or even memories from childhood. The greater concern, then, are the implications for a generation who have been unmoored from one of the 3R's. Most handwriting experts suggest that mastering penmanship facilitates a shift, moving children out of right brain processing, associated with imagination and emotion, into the detail-oriented, left brain processing that we know as analytical thinking.
Flickering colorful screens are everywhere, seducing us all to right brain processing. Surely children, now, more than ever, need to master the written alphabet, to engage a sluggish left brain that so easily lags, developmentally speaking.
What does your handwriting reveal? A lot. It reveals unique facets of your personality, but more importantly, if you are of a certain age, its trace attests to the care and sustained efforts of those who taught you how to write. Though you may not give that fluency a second thought, I argue that you continue to accrue benefits from it to this day, an advantage that will likely be denied to many, moving into the future.
WHAT'S IN A CELEBRITY'S SIGNATURE?
What's in a Celebrity's Signature?
Ralph Lauren(01 of07)
Open Image ModalLooking at the signature of Ralph Lauren (and comparing it to the signature of Matt Groening), we notice a style of writing that looks conservative and conventional. In developing it, Lauren chose to stay pretty close to the copybook script that children learn in school. Some writers deviate significantly from the copybook, preferring to innovate. Others, though, are traditionalists. They live true to solid values from the past and align with that which is classic, tried-and-true. So Ralph Lauren's signature aligns with his interest in timeless looks that maintain their relevance in any time period.
Martha Stewart(02 of07)
Open Image ModalNotice the strong attention to detail in Martha Stewart's signature. She carefully articulates each letter, fully alive to the shape and form of each. When writers carefully articulate middle zone letters (like "a," "r" or "w," among others), we see somebody with a great interest in the "middle zone" of life, the world of physicality. She carefully articulates those letters just as she carefully arranges food and home accessories, with great sensitivity to detail, preferring an arrangement that is clean and neat. Her careful legibility reveals a nature that is first and foremost inspired by the visual sense. She cares how things look. Writing a signature with that degree of detail means that words have to be penned very slowly. Her commitment to doing so demonstrates her as conscientious, deeply committed to maintaining a high standard, no matter how much effort and patience it requires of her.
Matt Groening(03 of07)
Open Image ModalThe creator of The Simpsons shows a signature comprised mostly of capital letters. Children learning to write are taught that capitals are to be used at the beginning of sentences or names and in other very specific instances. When a writer breaks grammatical rules, defying early training and choosing instead to use capitals within words instead of submitting to accepted conventions, the graphologist identifies a fundamentally rebellious and defiant nature. You can see how such a personality could come up with a television show that pushes the bounds of convention.
Dr. Sally Ride(04 of07)
Open Image ModalNotice the upward ascent of astronaut Sally Ride's signature, indicating a nature that strives upward. Along the same vein, the lines she pens are light and thin, adding a certain weightlessness to the writing. Ride's essay in "The Right Words at the Right Time, "a book edited by Marlo Thomas documenting important words that influenced various celebrities and prominent figures, is interesting. In that piece, Ride mentioned one line from her father that left an imprint. Speaking to his adolescent daughter, he said: "You know, you've got to reach for the stars." At that point in her life, Ride aspired to be a professional tennis player. So many years later, she wonders whether her father's injunction took root on an unconscious level. It very well may have. This signature, itself, seems imprinted by that imperative to reach for the stars.
Oprah Winfrey(05 of07)
Open Image ModalNotice the way Oprah protectively encircles most of the letters in her first name. The first name represents the personal self; the last name, the professional self. That protective enclosure around the first name shows a hunger to protect the personal or more private self, an impulse that is familiar to those who have experienced abuse in the past.
Isaac Stern(06 of07)
Open Image ModalWriters often embed symbols within their handwriting and/or signatures. Amongst many examples, the signature of Isaac Stern, the violin player, has the image of a violin embedded in the first letter of his last name (the surname represents the writer's professional self). Notice how his t bar serves as the violin bow.
Whoopi Goldberg(07 of07)
Open Image ModalWriters often embed symbols within their handwriting and/or signatures. Can you see Whoopi Goldberg's signature trait, her glasses, embedded in her signature?