Character Reading from Handwriting

by Louise Rice

Book by Rice, Louise

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 20, 1996

Reviews

[Alivia]

An interesting look at a bygone time. Graphology has been repeatedly debunked as a pseudoscience, and many of the author's attitudes are painfully prejudiced - see the phrase "in the higher branches of the human race" on page 13! There is an air of eugenicist philosophy throughout the book, especially in the sections dealing with "perverts" and "criminals" and how they can be recognized from their handwriting. From there it's not far to "Minority Report" or systematic discrimination in employment, housing, and so on. And here's the disturbing part - even today, nearly a century after this book was first published (1927), some employers still use handwriting analysis in their hiring process.
If you're seriously interested in using this book as a guide to graphology, there are chapters on legibility, pressure, rounded vs. angular writing, size, rhythm, signatures, etc.
If you're interested in the sociological outlook of the author, see the chapters "Moral Diseases," "The Types of Humanity," "Delineations of Character," and "Racial and Other Indications in Handwriting." (I'm honestly amazed this book was reprinted as-is in 1996, with no introduction to contextualize or indeed apologize for the content.)