 Great resource!!!
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis by Sheila Lowe is a MUST HAVE for everyone who plans to interact with people in any situation, be it professional or romantic or familiar. Understanding how the subtleties of a person's handwriting can tell us different things about that person, and may keep us from falling into bad relationships (business or personal) is invaluable. This book is so chock full of useful information, it is worth its weight in gold!
I highly recommend this book.
Great and Entertaining Information
I'm a sucker for unique skills and psychology. The Body Farm fascinates me, not that I'd want to be the scientist who digs into the putrid place, but the mystery and marvel of the human body amazes me. My Psych 101 class included The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat as one of the required textbooks. I loved learning, and still remember twenty years later, some of the details of the way a mind can twist.
Handwriting analysis is another one of those quirky sciences that grab my mind. I even sent my handwriting away to be analyzed during my Psych 101 days and the results we astonishingly accurate.
My fascination with the subject may color my review. I can't tell you how accurate or spot-on Sheila Lowe's information is or how it compares to colleagues. But I can tell you that this book is cool. The basic whys, hows and how-tos are included as are juicy evaluations and samples of handwriting styles.
If you are fascinated by the subject I think you might find this to be an excellent beginning look into this intriging skill.
Excellent book for beginners
I found the book easy to understand.I also like the fact it wasnt dry, but written with humor.
 There is no scientific basis for handwriting analysis
There have been lot of studies concerning handwriting, and the verdict of the scientific community is firm: there is no good data about its usefulness. Just call your nearest university and ask for professor in personality psychology and the response is the same I argue here. My specialty is psychometric studies of personality traits, so I regard myself as an expert.
Markku Ojanen, PhD
Professor of psychology
University of Tampere
 Decent but not great
The best part of the book for me were the handwriting samples of famous celebrities like Bill Gates Jr., Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although a printout of the actual sample isn't perfect, it's "good enough." It's fun to see the variety in individual handwriting.
For some strange reason, the "for Dummies" series tend to be better written than the "Complete Idiot's Guide" series. As an example, "Mormonism for Dummies" was very informative, light hearted, fun to read, and addressed thorny issues that its counterpart "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mormons" didn't address. (I remember another reviewer that said the same thing.)
Back to the subject. For some strange reason, I have yet to see a graphology book that mentions the apostle Paul's comment about his handwriting, that "every letter is a sign/symbol" (depending on which Bible you look at) in itself. Historical graphology books will mention the French and Germans, or even Aristotle, but not this 1st century Christian. Does this mean that graphology authors don't read their Bibles? How sad!
Everything related to handwriting reveals something about a person's personality. For example, if a person continues to use a leaky pen, this could indicate one or more of the following: thrifty, doesn't want to throw away usable ink, doesn't mind handwriting that has blotches, or doesn't want to bother looking around for a better pen. (OK! Perhaps there is another reason!)
(To be more accurate, handwriting analysis reveals how a person interacts or communicates or perceives their environment, which can include other people, things, and ideas to mention just a few items. Many people reject the idea that their handwriting can reveal so much about them at the time they wrote the handwriting sample, but it actually does.)
For some reason, many artists I know don't like their cursive handwriting and will print or write in all caps letters. This is only true of the languages that have small letters and capital letters. All caps writing tends to be more legible than regular handwriting and also tends to look nicer to the visual artist. Also, old time architects/engineering drafters are trained to write in all caps. So, for the person who doesn't meet the above two categories, all caps writing indicates a person who doesn't want to reveal too much about themselves than is necessary. This is even more true of the all caps writer with a strong left slant.
For the person who isn't using a leaky pen, blotchy handwriting will indicate uncontrolled passions, such as a really bad temper. Interestingly enough, Bill Gates Jr's handwriting sample had a severe blotch in it. This could be due to a leaky pen, poor photocopying, or a really bad temper! (I read a book about Microsoft which stated something along the lines that he actually was known for throwing temper tantrums, yelling obscenities, and spitting at people.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature had fairly even zones, which is rare in men (and even women.) This indicates someone who is roughly balanced in those three areas of thinking, communicating, and perceiving the environment. They are able to think/feel/communicate about those three areas of life at about the same time.
If someone has a zone that is out of balance with the other zones, does this mean they don't consider the other zones? No, just that their 1st preference is the zone that happens to be the strongest at the time of writing.
I read one book which claimed that immature people write with strong middle zones. This is not entirely true. You have to look at the quality of the sample involved. Ranging from 1 (poor legibility) to 5 (excellent legibility). You should assign negative traits to the lower rating and positive traits to the higher rating.
I've only seen one handwriting sample that I would give a rating of 6 and that was by an excellent Korean visual artist, a male, whose natural letter handwriting looked like calligraphy! Every letter he wrote looked like a work of art! His friend showed me a letter he wrote and one of his works of art and I was absolutely astounded! I haven't seen anything that comes close. He is a beautiful person inside and out, writing with natural graceful fluidity and intelligent speed.
People with strong middle zones tend to be socially oriented, or people lovers. This doesn't mean they don't think about "higher" or "spiritual" or "intellectual" matters. It just means that their 1st focus is the social life. People with strong middle zones and excellent legibility are very good people readers and communicators.
William Shatner has a very strong middle zone, very rare for an adult male. On a celebrity game show, when his wife (at the time) was asked if he was likely to cheat on her with another woman, she said "yes." (Remember that strong middle zones indicate people/social lovers.) When he came out of the booth and was asked the same question, he also said "yes"! When I saw his handwriting, I realized why he was both so funny and honest at the same time.
Ms. Kennedy Onassis writes with an extremely left slant and has a tall upper zone. People who write with left slants take a lot longer than other people to reveal their thoughts and feelings. They tend to be private. Please note that all people (men and women) have thoughts and feelings, but that many are quicker to reveal them and some aren't.
Well, I could go on and on but I won't. I'm sure you get the idea.
The book, "Handwriting Analysis for Dummies" (or "Graphology for Dummies"?) was much better. I remember giving it 4 or 5 stars.
I'm sorry that this review doesn't touch much on Lowe's book as it's been a while since I looked at it and it just didn't impress me that much.
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