Grapho-therapy does work -
but beware of so-called
"handwriting corrections"
Handwriting analysts have long been familiar with the idea that consistently
repeated writing strokes will affect a person's subconscious, either in a
positive or negative way.
The idea was first pioneered at the Sorbonne, France. One of the original researchers was Paul de Ste. Colombe who felt that many characteristics in a personality can be strengthened or changed through this method. After coming to the United States, he worked as a grapho-therapist both privately and in clinical settings until his death in 1972.
Dr. Camille Streletzki from Paris, France, reported in 1950 about administering grapho-therapy to clients with problems such as depression, insecurity, phobias, fears, inability to concentrate, anorexia, hypochondria, etc. Interestingly in France, grapho-therapy is also called "graphological re-education".
In Germany, grapho-therapy is used in clinical settings with anorexic patients, with learning disabled and neurotic children, to overcome stammering, bed wetting, phobias and anti-social behavior.
In the state of Hesse, elementary schools have added grapho-therapy courses (four hours per week) for the purpose of rehabilitating dyslexic children.
In 1984, Dr. Helmut Ploog wrote in "Angewandte Graphology und
Charakterkunde" (Applied graphology and character science) about
grapho-therapy in Germany and demonstrated ways in which it can make a valuable
contribution toward successful therapeutic treatment.
The danger of "handwriting corrections"
A certain group of "grapho-therapists" suggests a type of grapho-therapy that consists of individual letter "corrections." They suggest, among other things, raising the t-bar or underlining the signature, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, this often results in very dire consequences. While so-called handwriting "corrections" may result in a more pleasing writing picture there is, more often than not, pronounced subconscious resistance to the new forms resulting in excessive tension or serious personality disturbances. This is due to the fact that through the letter "corrections" evidence of an "undesirable" trait is eliminated in one place; however, it unknowingly tends to resurface, together with other kinds of resistance traits, in other letters or stroke combinations.
Let me explain this with an example.
Several years ago, in one of my college handwriting classes, a student by the name of Eddie consciously changed the letters "d" to eliminate the loop.
After about two weeks the "d's" and "t's" were still carefully retraced but in addition a new stroke had crept into the writing. The letters "E" and "h" suddenly showed rigid initial strokes starting from below the baseline.
According to "evaluated trait theory" strong imagination (the big loop in the letter "h") plus impulsiveness (forward slant) plus resentment (long initial strokes) reveal the evaluated trait of sensitiveness. Eddie's subconscious had played a trick on him. Not only was he still sensitive, he had now added the trait of resentment.
Grapho Cybernetics eliminates disturbances
through global exercises
Instead of "correcting" individual letters, Grapho Cybernetics uses carefully designed global exercises to strengthen rhythm, balance and harmony of the whole writing "picture". The results within the personality are stability and balance, both psychologically and physically without the creation of resistance traits.
Grapho-Cybernetic exercises stimulate ambidexterity
Grapho-Cybernetics exercises are especially powerful when done with both the left and the right hand. This enables a person to become ambidextrous.
Ambidexterity is important for several reasons:
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It enhances physical dexterity and performance. |
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It stimulates brain growth. |
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It facilitates increased use of both brain hemispheres. |
Human movements are performed only rarely by one hand. As a rule, they require the coordinated participation of both hands, and this coordination has different degrees of complexity.
In some cases, the simplest, it takes the form of equal, like movements, in which both hands simultaneously perform the same actions. However, these elementary movements are relatively rare. They occur only in acts such as swimming or during certain gymnastic exercises.
In other cases, the great majority, the movements of the two hands are coordinated in a more complex fashion, in which the master (right) hand performs the principal action and the subordinate (left) hand merely provides the optimal conditions under which the right hand can work, playing the role of a provider of the motor background.
Finally, the most complex types of movement of the two hands are those which are mutually opposite, or reciprocally coordinated in character, when contraction of one hand is accompanied by simultaneous release of the other.
Ambidexterity is the ability to use both your hands with equal ease of facility.
The Greeks promoted ambidexterity because it was a distinct benefit in sports and battle to be skillful with both hands instead of one. They devised an ingenious system to increase both-handedness. By combining the Phoenician right-to-left writing style together with their own left-to-right system, they created a writing system called boustrophedon, where the lines ran alternately right-to-left and left-to-right. In addition to facilitating ambidexterity, this also enhanced swifter back and forth eye movements.
Plato believed that both-handed men were superior in combat and sports.
Michaelangelo (1475 - 1564) was a multi-faceted genius like Leonardo da Vinci. He often painted with both hands. When one got tired, he switched to the other.
The British artist, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802 - 1873) could draw with both hands simultaneously - a horse's head with one hand and a stag's head with the other. He taught drawing and etching to Queen Victoria, who was a lefty and became ambidextrous.
Jean Jacques Rousseau favored rearing ambidextrous kids and in the early 1900's, England's pro-active Ambidextral Culture Society boasted of its celebrity members.
Fleming, Einstein and Tesla were all ambidextrous. Benjamin Franklin was also ambidextrous and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with his left hand.
U. S. 20th president, James Garfield, could write with either hand with equal ease, he could also write Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right hand simultaneously.
Harry Kahne demonstrated his mental dexterity in 1922 by performing several different kinds of tasks simultaneously. While one hand was writing mirror language, the other hand alternated between writing upside down and backward letters.
The famous C. L. Hannon piano school uses "Sixty Exercises" for piano to render the left hand equally skillful with the right.
The U. S. Golf Fitness Association is dedicated to improving ambidexterity to enhance golf performance.
Both-handed exercises facilitate increased use of both brain hemispheres.
The human brain is a paired organ; it is composed of two halves (called cerebral hemispheres) that look pretty much alike. But, in reality, the two halves of the human brain are not exactly alike. Each hemisphere has functional specializations.
In the mid 1800's, Paul Broca (a French neurosurgeon) suggested that a person's handedness was opposite from the specialized hemisphere (so a right-handed person probably has a left-hemispheric specialization). Clinicians used handedness as a marker for brain laterialization until the 1960's until the Wada Test (sodium amytal) was introduced. Up to this point, it was assumed that specific activities were performed exclusively in one specific site of the brain.
Recent investigations, however, have shown that certain complex activities (such as writing) involve all of the lobes in some portion and both hemispheres of the brain. This is the reason why GCA exercises can be used to increase activity in both hemispheres.
Both-handed Grapho-Cybernetic exercises stimulate brain growth
The majority of human beings use only 10% of their brain cells and lose over 100,000 of them every day due to misuse or disuse. And, the more a person neglects using his brain potential, the more this condition is likely to worsen. On the other hand, the more people use and exercise their brain, the more it physically grows.
Left-handed and ambidextrous people, on average, have an 11% larger corpus callosum than right handed people. (The corpus callosum is a very thick bundle of nerve fibers joining the right and left sides of the brain. Coordinated movements of both hands can take place only with the close participation of the anterior zones of the corpus callosum.)
An autopsy of Einstein's brain revealed a larger profusion of superficial capillaries interlacing the cerebral cortex than the average brain, as well as an additional amount of glial cells. (Glial cells support neurons. Without glial cells, the neurons would not function properly.)
Both-handed Grapho-Cybernetic exercises stimulate little-used areas of the brain to further new growth, achieve a more balanced integration of the two brain hemispheres, while at the same time, increasing physical skills.