Kathy wrote:
It is certainly interesting how people differ in their handwriting styles - we do not all have the same stle of writing, and children quite quickly develop their own handwriting style despite all being taught to form letters in a very similar way.
I have often been struck by how artists tend to have a particular type of calligraphic handwriting, and also how styles of handwriting seem to run in families: my maternal aunt and maternal grandmother have similar handwriting, and my father, his sister, and their nephew (my cousin) also have similar handwriting. I consider my writing to be quite similar to my sister's and to my mother's but different from father's.
However, despite having similar writing, my parents and their respective blood relatives have very different personalities, so whilst *something*, possibly genetic or otherwise inborn, seems to systematically affect people's handwriting, I don't think it's necessarily their personality, or, to make a further leap, that you can tell their personality from their handwriting.
As for whether this woman had a good grasp of Lewis Carroll's personality from his handwriting, I think it is very difficult to tell.
Firstly because we don't really know what Lewis Carroll was like as a person, and what someone "is like" is relatively subjective anyway (although there are reliable ways of measuring at least some aspects of people's personalities).
Secondly, there is a well known psychological phenomenon exploited by psychics, astrologers etc whereby people tend to place importance on things they think might be true and overlook things they think might not, thus giving an account an overall impression of truth. Moreover, such people tend also to provide quite general information, which can be interpreted in a number of different ways.
As a test, I suggest you re-read the account trying to put as many different spins on it as possible. Write these down. Then get three other Carroll experts to write a brief account of what they think he was like as a person. Contrast and compare. ... But only if you have nothing better to do...
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I have often been struck by how artists tend to have a particular type of calligraphic handwriting, and also how styles of handwriting seem to run in families: my maternal aunt and maternal grandmother have similar handwriting, and my father, his sister, and their nephew (my cousin) also have similar handwriting. I consider my writing to be quite similar to my sister's and to my mother's but different from father's.
However, despite having similar writing, my parents and their respective blood relatives have very different personalities, so whilst *something*, possibly genetic or otherwise inborn, seems to systematically affect people's handwriting, I don't think it's necessarily their personality, or, to make a further leap, that you can tell their personality from their handwriting.
As for whether this woman had a good grasp of Lewis Carroll's personality from his handwriting, I think it is very difficult to tell.
Firstly because we don't really know what Lewis Carroll was like as a person, and what someone "is like" is relatively subjective anyway (although there are reliable ways of measuring at least some aspects of people's personalities).
Secondly, there is a well known psychological phenomenon exploited by psychics, astrologers etc whereby people tend to place importance on things they think might be true and overlook things they think might not, thus giving an account an overall impression of truth. Moreover, such people tend also to provide quite general information, which can be interpreted in a number of different ways.
As a test, I suggest you re-read the account trying to put as many different spins on it as possible. Write these down. Then get three other Carroll experts to write a brief account of what they think he was like as a person. Contrast and compare. ... But only if you have nothing better to do...