Experts advocate handwriting in the digital age for mental well-being

Graphology, or handwriting analysis, is the study of using a person’s handwriting to determine the characteristics of that person. It is essentially a useful tool for detecting physiological and psychological issues before they worsen and is great for determining whether a person is under stress. Psychologists are using handwriting as a therapeutic technique to help patients with anxiety and other mental problems in today’s world of artificial intelligence with electronic gadgets. The action was taken in response to developmental psychology’s endorsement of graphology as a legitimate scientific instrument for psycho-diagnosis. Since ancient times, handwriting analysis has been a distinct, specialized, and developing scientific method.

Need of handwriting for mental health?

The psychologists also concentrated on handwriting as a crucial instrument for school counseling and averting suicidal thoughts in youngsters. The study of mental processes via handwriting analysis is known as graphology. A writer with legible handwriting need not be in good mental health. Rather, a crucial component in psychological diagnosis is the examination of writing patterns. Due to the pandemic, pupils lost the habit of writing since schools were closed for more than two years. Counselors have discovered that teens receiving three months of graphic treatment experience multiple mental health issues as a result of not writing.

How does handwriting affect mental health?

Psychologists acknowledge the validity of using graphology as a useful tool for psychodiagnosis and in psychology-related research. Graphology includes 27 different illness kinds, such as endocrine and heart ailments, in addition to 20 measuring scales for the diagnosis of mental problems.

Advantages of using handwriting in mental health treatment

• It is possible to conclude that the detected attribute is the outcome of handwriting analysis, which takes a more individualized approach than percentile-based psychometric tests.
• Unlike psychometry, which has defined limits, graphology allows for the elicitation of certain individual qualities. Based on the findings, the researchers hypothesize that graphology could be a highly useful projective tool for evaluating a variety of features, particularly in youngsters to identify underutilized and developing traits that could be crucial for a precise diagnosis.
• Remedial therapy, which enables positive trait change through corrective methods that could be especially essential during an individual’s primary development stage, is another noteworthy application of handwriting analysis.
• Additional useful benefits would include getting handwriting samples for index patients, which might not be a laborious process given that a passage can be copied while the patient waits in the outpatient waiting area or can be taken home and brought in for the next follow-up.
• Furthermore, unlike psychometric examinations, where individuals are coerced into providing “expected” answers, it is always free from response bias.

What is Grapho-therapy and its impact?

• Another name for handwriting is “brain writing.” Graphotherapy can change a person’s handwriting to promote positive thinking. This can greatly aid in the resolution of numerous psychological and emotional issues, including low self-esteem, a tendency to lie, increased uncontrollable physical desires, etc.
• The inability to write legibly by the time a child reaches school age frequently has detrimental long-term impacts on self-worth and academic achievement. The variety of underlying component abilities related to this intricate occupational job might hinder handwriting performance.
• These factors might be extrinsic, like low motor skills, or intrinsic, such a poorly stimulating environment.
• Handwriting development, competence, and intervention [feder KP, majnemer A. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2007;49:312–7.] Because of its impartiality, affordability, and time-effectiveness, the authors suggest using graphotherapy as a remediation tool to support teaching/learning strategies and behavior adjustments.

Applications for graphology and handwriting analysis are numerous, ranging from forensic analysis to employee profiling. Graphology allows us to examine a person’s mental health conditions, which is useful for employee profiling. Human resources departments in businesses can also use this to assess the stress levels of the staff members. Since mental health has a direct impact on an individual’s efficiency and production. Counselors and psychotherapists can utilize it clinically in conjunction with other projective instruments for assessing personality.