The International Journal of Indian Psychology

ISSN 2348-5396 (Online) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (Print)

Volume 9, Issue 1, January- March, 2021
DIP: 18.01.108/20210901, DOI: 10.25215/0901.108
http://www.ijip.in
Research Paper

Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

Durlabh Singh Kowal1, Pradip Kumar Gupta2*

ABSTRACT
Mutuality between handwriting and individual’s inclination toward crime is an area of
profound fascination. It is challenging to enter the most hidden corners of an abnormal mind
in order to discover, understand and explain its resorts, and also to provide clues regarding
the way of approaching, treating and planning rehabilitation. In India and other common law
countries, insanity is exempted from punishment even if insanity leads to the person
committing heinous crimes; because they are considered incapable of deciding the rightness
or wrongness of an act. Therefore, it is crucial and imperative to understand the reason
behind the anti-social crime and associated factors influencing personality of the offenders
especially psychopaths. Forensic graphology and psychiatry are the two major disciplines
involved in assessment of psychopathic tendencies and criminality. Both the approaches
follow projective nature to analyse and get into deepest of the personality of an individual.
Forensic is a punitive science concerned with the passing judgement on human conduct while
psychiatry is a therapeutic and reformative science followed for the benefit of society, human
rights and psychopaths. Though the two approaches assess personality from different
perspectives, when applied together can give a more effective and holistic explanation of
criminal behaviour. The present paper describes some important techniques of handwriting
analysis and highlights common handwriting patterns of psychopaths.

Keywords: Psychopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), Handwriting Analysis,

Graphonomy, Psychiatry, Forensic Psychology, Criminal/Antisocial Behaviour

P sychopathy is characterized by a set of personality traits such as shallow emotional

responses, lack of empathy, and impulsivity marked by poor behavioural controls,
resulting in persistent antisocial and criminal behaviour (Cleckley, 1941; Hare, 1996).
Psychopaths are responsible for an undue proportion of crime committed (Kiehl & Hoffman,
2011). In addition to immoral and antisocial behaviour, an individual with psychopathy
manifests lack of ability to love and establish meaningful personal relationships, shows
extreme egocentricity, and fails to learn from experiences. The conning and manipulative
interpersonal style of psychopaths generally creates a huge, destructive impact on their life,
work, and social functioning. Psychopathy is found in approximately 1% of the general
population, and is much more prevalent in men than women. When compared to offenders,
psychopathy constitutes approximately 15–25% of the prison population.

1
Scientist ‘E’ (DRDO), Selection Centre Central, Bhopal, India
2
Scientist ‘B’ (DRDO), Selection Centre East, Allahabad, India
*Responding Author
Received: February 18, 2021; Revision Received: March 14, 2021; Accepted: March 25, 2021
© 2021, Kowal D.S. & Gupta P.K.; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

The unique features of psychopathy, as well as the impact of the disorder on society as a
whole, continue to spark interest and fear in society. Researchers and clinicians have
advanced our understanding of the symptoms beyond what was originally proposed by
Cleckley (1941). Koch (1891) was first in his works to group ‘Psychopathic Inferiorities’
into behavioural states. Schneider (1923) established psychopath as a subclass of abnormal
personality. The work of Henderson (1939), Cleckley (1964), McCord & McCord (1964)
have established core criteria for the disorder revolving around anti-social behaviours and
classified psychopath personality as a distinct clinical entity.

Robert Hare (2003), a famous psychiatrist described psychopaths as, “Intra-species

predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation and violence to control others and to
satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they cold-
bloodedly take away what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and
expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.”

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5), provides
mental health care professionals a set of common criteria used for diagnosing mental health
disorders. The DSM- 5 has gone through a few changes and one of those changes is the
diagnostic title for sociopath. Sociopath and psychopath are now blanketed under the title
Antisocial Personality disorder or APD for short. The essential features of any personality
disorder are impairment in personality (self and interpersonal) functioning and the presence
of pathological personality traits.

Assessment of Psychopathy
There are various ways to assess psychopathy and especially APD. The self-report scales
such as Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale correlate moderately to highly with
observer measures of psychopathy but untruthfulness and absence of insight are hall marks
of APD, so self-report scales are of limited utility for detecting APD in clinical or forensic
settings. Thus, self-reports should be supplemented by other corroborative tool such as hand
writing analysis and negative personality traits such as aggression, dishonesty, insincerity,
unreliability, violence, emotional instability to assess the disorder. Psychopathy Checklist-
Revised (PCL-R) developed by Hare (1991) is one instrument considered as the gold
standard for assessing and diagnosing psychopathy in forensic samples. PCL-R is organised
as a two-factor model (Emotional and Interpersonal traits). Similar to PCL-R, the
Psychopathic Checklist Screening Version (PCL:SV) is four factor model comprising
interpersonal, affective, lifestyle and antisocial components (Neumann, et al., 2006). Hence,
the Psychopathic Viewpoint stands that psychopaths commit crime due to affective and
interpersonal deficits and not due to any other motive. This paper suggests the need for a
precautionary approach to get insight and beware others about antisocial personality disorder
ahead of time through handwriting analysis to avoid possible threat that may be caused by
them.

A general rule for the specialists, investigators, graphologists and psychologists is that,
“there is no such thing as a psychopath’s handwriting”, because there is no completely
honest person (normal), or a completely dishonest one (psychopath), everyone has a
negative potential, no matter if one choose to let it run his/her actions (conscious level of
mind) or if one keep it under control (unconscious level of mind). There is no defined sign
that is the equivalent of dishonesty, hypocrisy or psychopathic tendencies. Hence, one has to
build hypotheses for graphological analysis of the handwriting of a psychopath, which is

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 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

very subtle experience and need to correlate sign between absolutely negative feature and a
writing particularity.

Graphonomy
Graphonomy is the study of handwriting especially for the purpose of character or
personality analysis. Handwriting analysis is a skilful art of personality assessment.
Following in the footsteps of criminologists Jules Crépieux-Jamin (1925), Saudek (1928),
Pulver & Muhl (1949), Etienne de Greeff (1950) and Siegel (2013) lists eight signs most
often found in dishonest writers which are as : left tending half ovals, small tight loops,
covering strokes, abrupt stops above the line, breaks and mends, smeariness, slowness, and
looped arcades. Extremes in tension, for example either very tense or very slack writing, are
also associated with the antisocial personality. Handwriting is not done by hand or feet but
by a brain, printing brain on the paper. Hence, handwriting reflects how one feels, think and
act in a particular situation. It is learned consciously which becomes automatic and
unconsciously expressive.

Assessment of Psychopathy through Graphonomy

The writing characteristics of psychopaths (or APD) are discussed under following
pictographs:
1. Level of Organization: From a graphologist’s point of view, the writing of a psychopath
can generally be described as relatively conformist, rather banal, with little rhythm, stiff,
monotonous and abounding in abnormalities.

2. Zones: There are three zones in handwriting namely, lower, middle and upper which
represent Freudian conceptual instincts as Id, Ego and Superego respectively. Zone
imbalance indicates lack of harmony in three basic areas of psychoanalytic development of
personality described by the Freud. An inflated or shrunken zone is a danger sign of
psychopaths.
• Inflated lower zone: indicates insecurity, instinctual drives out of control.
• Inflated middle zone: indicates lack of maturity.
• Inflated upper zone: indicates delusional thinking, absence of reality or logical
check, an individual dominated by fantasy and illusion.
• Shrunken lower zone: indicates sexual immaturity, fear and trauma.
• Shrunken middle zone: indicates inability to cope with daily life and remain
unhappy, sad and depressive.
• Shrunken upper zone: indicates lacking inspiration and no faith in oneself
intellectual abilities.

3. Baseline: It refers to the imaginary line upon one write on a blank piece of paper. Erratic,
rigid, rising and falling baselines are danger signs of psychopaths.
• Highly erratic baselines: indicate lack of moral adjustment, inconsistent attitudes.
• Very rigid baselines: indicate narrow mindedness, tension, inhibition and fears.
• Extreme rising of baselines: indicate flightiness, restlessness, and lack of firm
control on reality.
• Falling baselines: indicate depression, low buoyancy and low liveliness.

4. Writing Slant: It describes in which way a handwriting lean. A handwriting can lean in
four ways broadly- backhand / reclined, straight up & down, forward / inclined and go in all

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 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

different directions. Erratic, extreme reclined and inclined slants are danger signs of
psychopaths.
• Erratic slant: indicates nervousness, unsettled and erratic mode of expression.
• Extremely inclined slant (more than 45° over from the vertical): indicates reactive,
hysterical, impulsive, fanatical and obsessive.
• Extremely reclined slant (more than 35° back from the vertical): indicates
withdrawn, evasive, blocked emotional development.

5. Pressure: It is the amount of force one exerts while writing. It reveals the amount of
mental energy the writer is currently using in his life. It also reveals the strength and
intensity of the writer’s appetites and desires, and the degree to which one can respond to
them. And it can indicate for which particular words and/or phrases the writer lacks intensity
or feels an increase of it. Pressure is an ‘infixed’ graphological trait, that means one don’t
always write with the same pressure. To take an account of pressure graphologist assess
one’s writings over a period of time. Extremely light & heavy, sudden burst and irregular
pressure in one’s handwriting is danger signs of psychopaths.
• Extremely heavy pressure: indicates that one is covertly inhibited and potentially
violent.
• Sudden burst of pressure (with a heavy pressure): indicates paranoid personality.
• Extremely light pressure: indicates sensual feeling response.
• Highly irregular pressure: indicates evasive behaviour and lack of involvement.
• Partially Connectedness (Pressure misplaced into horizontal dimension): indicates
anxiety, hysteria, and possible schizoid personality disorder.
• Disconnectedness (Pressure so light that it breaks in places): indicates anxiety,
nervousness, doubts over own ability to face difficulty.
• Extreme Pastiosity (sharpness of the inking pattern): highly sensual nature, possible
violence, sexual perversion, alcohol or drug abuse, criminality, mental or physical
illness.

6. Writing Size: It is categorized as large, overly large, medium, small or overly small
(microscopic). It reveals writer’s nature of personality as extrovert or introvert and how an
individual relates to his or her environment. It also tells about capacity for concentration of
an individual. Crowded/ tangled, uneven margins, gigantic, microscopic writing sizes are
danger signs of psychopaths.
• Crowded or Tangled writing: indicates confusion, lack of inner harmony and
balance.
• Uneven margins: indicates antisocial personality (APD), and rebelliousness.
• No margins: indicates fear especially of death and overly talkative.
• Gigantic writing: indicates mania, lack of awareness of boundaries between self and
the environment and exhibitionism.
• Microscopic writing: indicates introversion, fear, inhibition, creation of private
world, lack of ability to relate realistically to others.
• Extreme variation in letter size: indicates inconsistent in response to environment,
over sensitive, indecisive, childish and mood swings.

7. Spacing: It refers to the distances between letters, words, and lines of writing. It tells how
the writer feels toward other people, about one’s social behaviour, and whether or not one
thinks fluidly- intelligence. Each word one write represents one’s ego. Where one chooses to
put the next word represents where one subconsciously chooses to put other people in
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 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

relation to oneself. Overly wide or narrow spaces between letters, cramped letters and
cramped spacing between words, tangling lines and uneven spacing are danger signs of
psychopaths.
• Overly spacing: indicates fear of enclosure, isolation, withdrawal and suspicion.
• Narrow spacing: indicates fear of losing control on self or surroundings.
• Cramped, tangling or uneven spacing: indicates lack of inner organization and
inner conflicts.

8. Speed: It tells about an individual’s intellectual level, how quickly one can think and act,
the degree of spontaneity and honesty. Slow speed indicates discernment of falsehoods and
calculative in responding or acting.

9. Rhythm: It has been described as a balance between the contracting and releasing quality
of the writing. The extreme release or contraction is a danger sign of psychopaths.
• Extreme Release: indicates absence of control and strong feeling of anxiety which
can lead to irrational behaviour.
• Extreme Contraction: indicates absence of spontaneity, strong psychological stress
and inner unrest which can lead to hostility.
• Splinting of letters: indicates fractured mental process.
• Retouching: indicates uncertainty, lack of confidence and nervousness.

10. Connecting Strokes: There are four basic types of connecting strokes namely – garlands
(roundness), arcades (overhandedness), angles (angularity), and threads (squiggling).
Illegible writing, overly round, drooping garlands and prominent arcades are danger signs of
psychopaths.
• Illegible writing: indicates that an individual is out of touch with reality, inability to
communicate needs and ideas.
• Overly round writing: indicates immaturity, dependency, lack of intellectual
development, and compulsive tendencies.
• Drooping garlands: indicates feeling of guilt and showing that anybody can take
advantage of oneself.
• Prominent arcades: indicates exhibitionism, avoidance of dealing with emotional
problems and hides behind a facade.
• Extreme threading: indicates lack of direction or purpose and lack of hold on
reality.
• Inconsistent threading: indicates anxiety and hysteria.

11. Lead in and Ending Strokes:

• Long lead-in strokes: indicates strong dependency ties and exhibitionism.
• Lead-in strokes from below baseline: indicates repressed aggression with tension
and anxiety.
• No ending strokes: indicates inability to dedicate to others (unfaithful).
• Exaggerated endings: indicates cautious, defensive behaviour and fear of being
hurt.
• Weak endings: indicates passivity and depression.
• Angular ending: indicates aggression and hostility directed to environment.
• Extreme squaring of letters and connecting strokes: indicates possibly psychosis.
• Frequent X-ing: indicates self-destructive tendencies and feeling of martyrdom.

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 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

12. Loops: loops in the zones indicate ideas, dreams, imaginations and emotions. They are
different meaning depending on the zone the loops are found in and what shape they are.
Lower cursive letters b, e, f, g, h, k, l, p and y are loop letters. Exaggerated, stunted,
retraced, distorted, reversed and broken loops are danger signs of psychopaths.
• Exaggerated loops in g & y: indicates emotional or sexual needs not being satisfied.
• Stunted loops: indicates an ability to express emotion is impaired.
• Retraced loops: indicates inhibition, fears emotional involvement.
• Distorted loops: indicates warped emotional response and neurosis.
• Reversed loops: indicates rebelliousness, antisocial tendencies.
• Broken loops: indicates anxiety over a future course of action.

13. Ovals: It occupies the middle zone of writing and considered as the centre of the
graphical world. Letter ‘a’ lowercase and ‘o’ are among the so-called ovals and express as
the “synthesis of personality” because it expresses the most intimate feelings, consolidated
and desired interests of an individual. It symbolizes the Freudian ‘EGO’ of the personality
which is also an executive of the personality of an individual. It represents the continuum of
honesty and integrity of an individual. Double or triple (knotted) loops, stabs in the ovals,
wedging, felon’s claw loops, omitted letters, continuous mistakes, retouching, ovals made
upside down, segmented and retracing are especially are danger signs of dishonesty, lack of
integrity and psychopaths.
• Knotted ovals: indicates defensiveness, inhibition and getting into the area of deceit,
• Small ink filled ovals: indicates explosive temperament.
• Stabs or forked tongue oval: indicates a trait of liar.
• Wedging: indicates dangerously dishonest, criminalistic, crooked and potentially
dangerous person.
• The felon’s claw oval: indicates most frightening trait of personality, which is
stabbing from behind, bitterness, subconscious guilt and bad instincts.
• Omitted letters or Pieces of letters: indicates deceptive nature and deviousness.
• Slip of Pen or Continuous mistakes: indicate lying and extreme anxiety.
• Ovals made upside down: indicates embezzlers and thief.

14. Signature: It represents one’s public self-image and social persona, which means how
one behaves in public and what one think of oneself in public around the people. Long
strokes and unusual signatures are danger signs of psychopaths.
• Long strokes through the signature: indicates unhappiness with self-image and
self-destructive tendencies.
• Signature which is very different from script: indicates unrealistic self-image.

CONCLUSION
Along with the overt and covert traits exhibited by psychopaths, they show a unique
penmanship. The psychiatric diagnosis combined with the information provided by profilers
and graphologists do nothing more than to offer the investigators more details he can use in
order to discover the wrong doer. The nature of the crime committed by psychopaths are
usually heinous in nature which urges severe punishment at first glance but understanding
the reason behind the crime and personality assessment by psychologists and graphologists,
it becomes evident that the crime committed by psychopaths is not due to any mens rea but
only under the influence of antisocial personality disorder. Finally, to conclude specific
graphic traits clusters that graphologists have traditionally associated with psychopath or
criminal mind reflects in varying degree are tendencies of covering up, evasiveness,
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 Handwriting analysis: A psychopathic viewpoint

inhibition, defensiveness, lack of clarity, self-consciousness, deliberate calculations,

impulsiveness, deceitfulness, dependency, vanity and ostentation which can be identified in
the handwriting of the person as described under the head graphonomy. In United Kingdom
and United States of America separate standing have been made for psychopaths, there is
still an urgent need in India Judicial system to identify and classify such mental disorder.
Since India is a multi-lingual and multi-script county, therefore a great amount of research
scope is present in identifying psychopath or antisocial personality traits through Automatic
Handwriting Analysis (AHR), and Online Handwriting Recognition (OHR) on popular
Indian scripts.

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Acknowledgement
The author appreciates all those who provided their valuable inputs while writing this paper.

Conflict of Interest
The author declared no conflict of interest.

How to cite this article: Kowal D.S. & Gupta P.K. (2021). Handwriting analysis: A
psychopathic viewpoint. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 9(1), 1052-1058.
DIP:18.01.108/20210901, DOI:10.25215/0901.108

© The International Journal of Indian Psychology, ISSN 2348-5396 (e)| ISSN: 2349-3429 (p) | 1058