Signatures, doodles, handwriting reveal a lot about a person's personality

Alice Weiser is a pro in the field of handwriting, doodle analysis and the reading of body language

If you don't want anyone to know anything about you, don't put anything in writing — because Alice Weiser might see it. On the other hand, if you want to know more about yourself, put something in writing and put it in front of Weiser. As a personality profiler, Weiser is more interested in how you write than in what you write.

She gets beneath the ink and behind the paper to explore a person's emotions, goals, fears, business aptitude and social traits, simply through handwriting, signatures, and doodles.

Weiser said that people who make little circle dots above the letter "i" are individual and unique, but in a quiet way.

People who write larger than the lines and outside the borders strive to live by their own rules.

A letter "g" that looks like a number "8" means one is inclined toward the literary, either as an avid reader or an author wannabe.

"You cannot disguise your handwriting," said Weiser, author of Judge the Jury: Experience the Power of Reading People. "It's the one true way to know who you are. It's your portrait."

Walt Disney's writing exudes happiness, clear communication and individualism; and a letter written by Jacqueline Kennedy, shortly after the death of President John F. Kennedy, depicts a woman who is withdrawn and extremely private, Weiser said.

Weiser loves signatures because, even in today's world of typing and text messaging, they are still required in many places.

However, a happy, excited person may add a little flourish to his John Hancock. If he's worried about paying the mortgage, it will look quite different.

Richard Nixon, after his impeachment, crossed himself out with the letter "x," while Marilyn Monroe's looped capital "M" depicts need and worry, Weiser said.

Upstrokes, flourished strokes, breaks in words or circle dots - the way you write may reveal whether you're persistent, unique, touchy, direct, or, perhaps, even somewhat psychic. And signature is your psychological calling card. It's the way you want people to perceive you.

And what doodles can say? People who draw eyes tend to be suspicious. People who dabble with stars are exploring creativity. People who get loopy with pen or pencil are fluid and graceful. Widely spaced large loops indicate a great deal of imagination. Tightly spaced small loops mean the doodler is a little high-strung or wound up.

Weiser also likes to help human resource departments get an inside look at potential job candidates.

Weiser analyzes handwriting for fun, but it's also her profession. She works with lawyers during jury selection and claims a 90 percent success rate in that part of her work.

Michael Louis Minns, a Houston attorney and the author of The Underground Lawyer, said Weiser reads handwriting as though it's an autobiography.

It was, in fact, a book, that got Weiser started. Weiser was 15 when she volunteered to analyze handwriting at a charity function.

"I bought a book on how to do it for 25 cents, sat in a little booth and asked everyone to write the same sentence," Weiser said. "Something happened there, because that's when I decided to study it and become certified."

"It" has a technical term - graphoanalysis, both an art and a science. Weiser went on to graduate from Boston University and receive certification from the Institute of Graphoanalysis in Chicago.

Suffice it to say, friends and family sometimes get nervous around Weiser. "I try to turn off the analyzing," said Weiser, a mother of three, "but it's hard." 

Source: The Houston Chronicle