When someone starts to write a letter, he must immediately decide where and how he should form it. In school, we were taught to start with a soft-curving loop and end the same way. This was the Palmer Method. As the writer matures, he usually drops the beginning strokes or develops an individualized beginning stroke, different from what he was taught in school. If he does not, his writing will usually be classed as immature.

FIGURE 1.

The copybook writing in Figure 1 shows immaturity. This writer still adheres to the use of beginning strokes, which do not add any significance to the letter or make the word more readable. Adding this unnecessary step to his writing enlarges it, quantitatively but not qualitatively, and thus shows lack of growth.

FIGURE 2. Figure 2 has no beginning strokes, which shows directness, someone who gets right down to the point without commotion. It is the handwriting of the mature individual.

Notice that there isn’t even one word in Salvadore Dali’s writing in Figure 2A that contains a beginning stroke. He surely gets right down to business. The many-knotted t-bars show him to be a diligent worker as well.

FIGURE 2A.

FIGURE 3.

Figure 3 shows hooks that are inturned (so much so that at first glance they appear to be c's). This reveals selfishness and greed, for the first letter in a word refers to the writer, the last to his relations with others, and here the hooks are pointing to the first letter. Since the nature of a hook is to hold on, we also see greed.

FIGURE 4.

The writer of Figure 4 has long beginning strokes, extended well under the body of the writing. He is ambitious-shown by the distance he has come-but he will grate on other peoples' nerves, for he needs a lot of room for himself and will get in their way.

FIGURE 5.

Figure 5 shows a long extension to the left of the body of the writing. It indicates one with strong ties to the past, and a need to stretch out to the left.

FIGURE 6. In Figure 6, the beginning strokes touch the letter-not in the usual way, but as if there were some unconscious motive in the writer. These beginning strokes touch the stems of the letters in the upper area, corresponding to the head. This writer feels a mental strain in whatever he does, as if someone were poking something at his head. The end stroke represents a man’s true personality, whereas the beginning stroke represents what he sees in himself and what he wants others to see in him. The end stroke shows the reality of how he relates to his fellowman. The beginning letter demonstrates his self-image, while the end stroke demonstrates his true feelings about the one he is writing to. In general, a man starts off trying to give the best possible impression of himself, and this shows in the beginning stroke. After a while, he lets his guard down, and at the end he is not so conscious as he was of giving that good first impression. He has asserted himself; he no longer needs to be so conscious of his appearance. Therefore we see his true character emerge. It is always interesting to compare the beginning strokes with the end ones, a comparison that yields a wealth of information. With the end stroke, the writer has a problem similar to that of his beginning stroke-where to end. It is a social decision, since the end of the word represents his relationship to his fellowman. If his end stroke turns back toward the left, this shows his thinking is directed toward the past, his home, mother and childhood, repression. If it is drawn out to the right, it shows him oriented toward other people, the future, goals. If his end strokes go upward, we will see that his thoughts are spiritual ones, religious, even mystical. If they go downward, his thoughts are materialistic, sexual, implying that he lives a life of pleasure. If he avoids a commitment and simply fades out, without an end stroke at all, it indicates meanness toward his fellowman. Let us examine some end strokes and make these points more vivid.

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