Talk:Graphology

Surely shome mishtake

"Graphology is the pseudoscientific[1][2] study and analysis of handwriting, especially in relation to human psychology. In the medical field, the word can be used to refer to the study of handwriting as an aid in diagnosis and tracking of diseases of the brain and nervous system."

The second sentence alone invalidates the first. Furthermore, later we have:

"There have been a number of studies on gender and handwriting.[70][71][72][73] Uniformly the research indicates that gender can be determined at a significant level. The published studies on ethnicity,[74][75][76] race,[77][78][79] age,[80][81][82] nationality,[83] gender orientation, weight, and their relationship to handwriting have had mixed results, with a tendency to indicate that they can be determined from handwriting."

It therefore looks to me very much as if (in the first sentence) the comma after "handwriting" should be deleted, along with the following "especially". This would make the article consistent, and would also accord with my own understanding of the matter. Paul Magnussen (talk) 18:12, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

I just made a couple changes to the lead. I rewrote our definition to match the OED's definition: "the study of handwriting". And I made the point about pseudoscience a proposition about theories and practices that try to relate handwriting to personality, rather than part of the definition. I think this fixes the worst problem with lead, but there is still a lot of work to do. After fixing the easiest problems in the lead, I figure the wisest course is to improve the body of the article and then go back and summarize the rewritten body in the lead (as suggested by WP:LEADFOLLOWSBODY). The body of the article is a huge mess, but it does have a lot of sourced information. To see how to organize it all, I briefly tried looking for a book that provides a good overview or history of graphology, but I didn't find anything that jumped out as obviously comprehensive and authoritative. Do you know of one? —Ben Kovitz (talk) 18:18, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

For a history of graphology, your starting point is Jim Miller's Bibliography of Handwriting Analysis: A Graphological Index Whitston Publishing Company: Troy, NY: 1982 ISBN 0-87875-184-X. There are a couple of reviews of the field in psychology journals, but I don't remember the citations. One major issue with the reviews of the field found in general psychology journals, is that the reviewers omit, either by design, or accident, the research done by professionals within the field. Consequently, their reviews imply an invalidity that is not objectively present.(Research by non-graphologers usually ends up doing the functional equivalent of using the attributes of a lemon, to determine if an item is a motor vehicle.)p (talk) 06:18, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

Fluckiger, Fritz A, Tripp, Clarence A & Weinberg, George H: A Review of Experimental Research in Graphology: 1933 - 1960. Perceptual and Motor Skills 12: 67–90; is probably the best review of the field, that was published in an academic journal.p (talk) 16:48, 23 August 2014 (UTC)