Aspects of Handwriting. Historical, current and scientific publications on handwriting⎟issue 2

ASPECTS OF HANDWRITING Historical, current and scientific publications on handwriting

January 2020 — Issue 2 — ISSN 2628-0515

CONTENT

I N H A LT

The Place of Handwriting Analysis in Legal Psychology: Topical Issues and Research Perspectives ...........................................................................................3 Die Einstellung zum Computer in der Graphologie .......................................21 Ambition. A Graphological Approach ..............................................................24 Ein Genie, das eigene Wege ging. Rezension zu Steffen Menschings „Schermanns Augen“ ..........................................................................................37 Imprint Impressum............................................................................................42

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Legal Psychology

Handwriting examination

The Place of Handwriting Analysis in Legal Psychology: Topical Issues and Research Perspectives

by Vali Engalychev

Introduction by the editors The following article was written in 2019 by Vali F. Engalychev, Professor at Tsiolkovskiy Kaluga State University (Russia). He is a certified forensic psychology expert and director of the Scientific Research Centre of Forensic Examinations and Criminalistics.

Psychological handwriting analysis or handwriting psychology has been applied in different domains — personnel selection, psychotherapy, psychological support of business, pedagogy, etc. One of the special areas is legal psychology, which includes the very wide field of subdisciplines: criminal, preventive, operational, investigative, forensic and penitentiary psychology.

Legal psychology is applied to the law, legal system, victims and lawbreakers. In the current article we focus primarily on the criminal process — the civil proceeding is a special and important area that has its specifics and deserves a separate discussion.

Since scientific handwriting psychology is a relatively new instrument for legal psychology (we do not take into consideration some past cases, when graphology as a less scientific methodology was involved), there is a need to point out the most relevant research topics and to formulate questions, which help to reveal these topics. That is the author’s intention in the current article. In this new field, we cannot yet formulate exact hypotheses, but rather present general reflections. The actual research work is ongoing.

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Criminal psychology explores mental phenomena that lead to criminal acts. This includes the following topics: •

The psychological content of criminal acts themselves.

•

Personality of criminals.

•

The structure of criminal groups.

•

The causes and conditions of crime in society.

These mental phenomena are inherent to the personality of individual offenders and to criminal groups. They cover their conscious and unconscious spheres and the process of mental regulation of criminal behaviour. According to several authors (Howitt, 2015; Ахмедшин, 2010), they can identify the following objects of scientific knowledge in the field of criminal psychology: •

Criminal properties of personality of individual criminals and criminal groups, which are subjective preconditions for criminal behaviour.

•

Properties of consciousness, which are the determinants of crime in society.

•

Mental processes and states, which manifest themselves in the mental activity that determines criminal behaviour of an individual or a group; namely, in perception of social situations and objects of criminal encroachments, in motivation of criminal acts, in formation of criminal intent and decision making on committing illegal actions, in realisation of criminal intent, etc.

•

Mental phenomena that determine the formation of a criminogenic personality, the formation of criminal groups and criminogenic defects of public consciousness.

The subject of criminal psychology includes types, qualitative characteristics and interrelation of mental phenomena acting as internal determinants of 4

criminal behaviour of an individual or a group, and as general criminality in society. Additionally it includes mechanisms and regularities of formation and manifestation of these phenomena in the generation of criminal acts.

Thus, the subject of criminal psychology expresses aspects and forms of scientific description and scientific explanation of its objects, i.e. mental phenomena that determine criminal behaviour. Scientific description and explanation of these phenomena and deepening of scientific knowledge about them is actually the aim and theoretical research in criminal psychology (Ситковская, 2016).

A special part of criminal psychology is the theoretical provisions and their practical applications in the field of childhood, adolescence and youth (Шнейдер, 2018). In particular, scientists and legal practitioners working directly with juvenile offenders show that their aggressiveness, cruelty and uncompromising behaviour is significantly higher than that of adults. Therefore, most of the provisions of criminal psychology must be adapted to their age and psychological characteristics.

With regard to handwriting analysis in criminal psychology we can ask questions about the possibility of identifying any general patterns of criminal behaviour and their possible reflection in handwriting. At his time, Cesare Lombroso tried to establish the hidden signs of innate propensity to criminal behaviour with the help of the skull relief. We know now that the general idea of Lombroso was false, but most important, that it was able to encourage scientists to research in this direction. That led to achievement of many important scientific results. That is why, following to some extend this direction, we can ask if it is possible to reveal some common criminal patterns reflected in handwriting. The well-known criminologist Salvatore Ottolengi came to the following conclusion in his work on handwriting analysis (Оттоленги, 1926): “Nobody could better than us, who were present at the first graphological experiments made by Cesare Lombroso over the criminals, us, who had the opportunity to study changes in the individual characteristics of handwriting in psychologically pathological states, in a state of 5

hypnosis — no one could be more convinced of the scientific basis of graphology”.

Likewise, we are interested in detecting general statistical associations between handwriting and psychological characteristics. Is it possible to assert that some types of criminal behaviour can be identified by typologizing specific graphological features?

Another interesting question, which actually refers not only to criminal psychology, would be, whether exist general patterns in handwriting of people, who are leaders of the criminal world, i.e. crime bosses.

At the interface between criminal psychology and ethnopsychology, it would be interesting to study specifics of mental characteristics of criminals from different ethnicities and countries. For example, whether it is possible to find out from a German handwritten text that it has been executed by a native speaker of one from Eastern Europe? Possesses this individual pronounced aggressiveness as a steady personality trait? Is it acceptable to use the data, obtained by the handwriting analysis, for different age and ethnocultural groups of the population?

Another point is, whether it is necessary to achieve homogeneity of the sample in terms of the type of committed crime, presence/absence of recidivism and social status in the criminal environment?

Preventive psychology according to (Беличева, 1994) studies the nature, regularities and mechanisms of prevention and overcoming the deviant behaviour of people in general, and criminal behaviour in particular . The subject of preventive psychology is mental constructs that determine the deviant behaviour. The aims of preventive psychology are as followers: •

to identify individuals with deviant behaviour,

•

to determine the causes and conditions of deviations,

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•

to search the ways and means of preventing deviant behaviour in general,

•

to develop theoretical and practical foundations of the process of prevention and overcoming deviant behaviour.

The tasks of preventive psychology include development of theoretical and applied foundations for effective strategies together with legal, organizational and educational measures for crime prevention. Preventive psychology fulfils its tasks on the basis of theoretical developments, which explain the criminal qualities of an individual person and public consciousness, factors of their formation, patterns of their neutralisation and development of anticriminogenic properties at potential criminals.

Discussion about the usage of handwriting analysis includes two points.

First, preventive psychology is expected to identify potential criminals, and thus the prevention of offences and crimes. Could the analysis of handwriting help here? At what stage of handwriting mastering, i.e. at what age of the investigated person is that really possible? How realistic is it by comparing handwritten texts of the same person done at different periods of his life to reveal the increase of his criminogenic pathological potential, which can serve as a psychophysiological basis for a possible crime?

Secondly, preventive psychology by means of handwriting analysis could study, in particular, such topics as revealing the dynamics of changes in the handwriting of such individual-psychological features of a person, which would indicate his or her new, anti-criminal and prosocial attitude to the world, society and himself or herself.

When we take handwriting analysis in the interdisciplinary context bridging it with pedagogical psychology, the following question pops up: “Is it possible to improve certain psychological characteristics of a person by changing his/her handwriting?” That may sound a bit unrealistic. However, if Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics, managed to achieve that with pronunciati7

on, why is it not possible with handwriting? He bet with his friend, Colonel Pickering, that he would be able to teach Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, the typical pronunciation in high society, and would then be able to present her as a duchess at a social reception. By doing so Elisa has also really changed as a person: by trying to be like a person of a different social class, she has really become one.

Operational psychology implies obtaining information on the basis of “signals” coming from a person and being able to “read” them. It is an applied branch of legal psychology that studies regularities and special features of people’s interaction in the area of intelligence and counter-intelligence activities of law enforcement authorities. The major objective is to study criminal groups, personality of their leaders, open and closed communication systems within such a group and of this group with similar ones, to detect oppositionists and to bring them to cooperation, and fi nally to provide psychological impact on leaders of criminal groups, key members and oppositionists (Аврутин, 2018).

The following particular tasks support this main objective: 1.

To recognize the individual space of a person and to consider their communication. Analysis of particular features of human perception in this context.

2.

Observation as a method of personality study. Techniques and methods of observation, methods of working with the obtained information.

3.

Operational analysis of a person's personality and type of temperament from speech characteristics, physiognomic features, gestures and constitution, handwriting, manner of dressing, etc. Methods of identifying a person's self-esteem, limitations in the process of communication.

4.

A universal method of establishing contact with the object of interest (practice of secret services). Techniques of maintaining and developing 8

contact, methods of safe exit out of it. "Nuances" and mistakes of the first impression. Practical recommendations for taking into account the psychological specifics in interaction with a person of the opposite sex.

Use of libido for information purposes.

5.

Recruitment: methods of winning an ally and assistant. Express-determination of the needs of the individual, psychotechnical methods of breaking the prejudices of the interlocutor. Psycho-technology of creating trusting relationships.

6.

Ferreting out: psychological methods of obtaining information from the interlocutor in cases when he/she does not want to share the information. Tactical methods of supporting the ferreting out.

7.

Methods of detecting lies in the process of communication. Analysis of the interlocutor by determining the type of his/her representative system. Psychological methods to achieve the goal. Analysis of "body language".

8.

Psychological impact on a person: basic models, adjustment techniques, trance guidance technologies, suggestion strategies.

9.

Manipulations in communication and technologies of confrontation with them. Psychophysiology of effective manipulative influence.

10. Neurolinguistic programming techniques: application of special techniques to control human behaviour.

11. Technologies of persuasion — methods of hidden control of people. Effective methods of persuasion and persuasive impacts.

A special area of operational psychology is profiling (Godwin, 2000), which has become widely known due to the work of the FBI's Behavioural Research Centre. Especially due to the works of Douglas, Geberth, Holmes, Ressler and others, where profiling has been used to describe the system of identifying unidentified criminals (usually serial killers and rapists) by the tra9

ces they leave on the crime scene. A good example of this is shown in movie "Silence of the Lambs". However, even earlier, during the Second World War, Walter Langer was working in USA on the creation of a psychological profiles of Adolf Hitler and other leaders of the Third Reich in order to better understand their motives and the structure of their behaviour (Langer, 1973), and later on, to possibly control these people by giving personally significant signals, information and specially organised influences. The work on distance psychodiagnostics of personality turned out to be demanded not only by politics (Engalychev, 1999), but also in applied legal psychology for evaluation of psychological profiles and, ideally, psychological portraits of leaders of criminal groups known to law-enforcement bodies, but inaccessible for traditional, contact psychodiagnostics.

Despite their semantic similarities, often interchangeable, which are used to describe the studying of remote identity, the concepts of "profile" and "psychological portrait" are not synonymous, nor are they synonymous with "profiling" and "psychodiagnostics". However, the clarification of their logical and semantic relationships is not the purpose of this paper and requires separate discussion.

It is possible to say, that historically there have been three methods of psychological assessment of personality, which have a common object of research, but differ in goals and tasks, subject and techniques (Енгалычев, 2001a): 1.

Contact psychodiagnostics, or contact profiling — creating a psychological portrait of a person in direct interaction with him/her (classical psychodiagnostics).

2.

Trace psychodiagnostics, or trace profiling — creating a psychological portrait of a person based on the traces of his/her life activity (home, personal belongings, objects of influence, etc.).

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3.

Distance psychodiagnostics, or remote profiling — indirect study of personality through audio-visual observation, study of photographic and film documents, analysis of authentic speech texts, interviewing loved ones, use of indirect interrogation and indirect examination techniques, handwritten texts, etc.

Let us briefly mention some personality characteristics that can be identified by means of distant analysis. First, it is the identification of six main symptom groups of the functional state that changes in accordance with external rhythms (helios-, geo-, physical- and bio-): general health, specific changes in functioning of individual body systems, the level of general activity, changes in motivation, emotional background of activity and special features of executing work activities.

Secondly, the typological features of an individual, associated with the intensity, mobility and balance of neural processes, which are revealed through typical repeatable behavioural reactions at professional activity, and in personal life. Special features of motivational and volitional regulation are revealed by the information on person's behaviour, through the importance of certain objects for him/her, by their place in the structure of his professional activity, by subjects included and/or not included in his actual consciousness, and by energy resources allocated to achieve certain goals.

Knowledge about special features of the intellectual sphere is formed on the basis of answers to questions and tasks scattered in tests and questionnaires. Of particular interest are the fixed biases between the demonstrated image of a person and really detectable psychological features, which allow not only to adequately reflect the realities of the studied situation, but also give an indirect idea of the tactics and techniques of psychological protection. With regard to handwriting psychology, these parameters are of great cognitive and practical interest. Which of these features can be really found through the analysis of handwritten texts?

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Investigative psychology is a fi eld of legal psychology, which considers psychological characteristics required by investigative activities, psychological methods, techniques, tools and technologies to improve the effi ciency of preliminary investigation. Here they single out the main components of the professional activity of an investigator and work out their exact scientifi c defi nition. Additionally, investigative psychology describes professionally important qualities of the investigator (communicative, intellectual, emotional and volitional, etc.) with the defi nition of criteria and methods of psychological assessment of professional suitability or unsuitability for investigative work.

Evaluation of investigators seems to be extremely informative if we combine traditional methods of psychodiagnostics with handwriting analysis. The fact is, that practicing lawyers, as a rule, are experienced in the methods of counteraction to the investigation. These methods are particularly learned during the education at law faculties. Therefore, the focus and intention of their questions should be good understood. The purpose of an expert-psychologist is, if we put it a little harshly, to "catch" the examined person at the inconsistency with the professional requirements. In our case such a person is the case investigator. The purpose of the investigator is not to reveal his or her weaknesses. The study of a handwritten text could provide a unique opportunity to obtain objective information about its individual psychological features.

Psychology of preliminary investigation of crimes is closely connected with criminology and criminalistic tactics. Legal and psychological characteristics of investigative actions are considered depending on the stage of proceeding — preparation, direct conduct or analysis of results.

Psychology of participants of preliminary investigations studies their identity (of a suspect, an accused, a victim and others) and their behaviour before, during and after committing the crime. Experienced investigators pay special attention not only to the content of the testimony, but also to non-verbal 12

features of the behaviour of the questioned person, i.e. mimics, kinesics, pantomime, etc. (Горелов, 1988). Among these non-verbal features of a person is handwriting, including signatures.

Psychology of witness testimony focuses on psychology of testimony formation, on reflection of a criminal event in the consciousness of a person, on manifestation of personal reconstruction of information preserved in memory and its subsequent reproduction, on individual manifestation of psychological protection and on mental alienation in the process of questioning.

Researchers are especially interested in the psychology of lies (perjury). To analyse the structure of false statements, types of lies, psychodiagnostic signs of false testimony, motives and purposes of a collusion (self-incrimination). Additionally, methods of exposing a false witness are researched. Here once again, handwriting analysis can provide invaluable help as an instrument of obtaining objective information about the psychological traits of a witness. First, according to the legislation of many countries, a participant in criminal proceedings may, in principle, refuse to undergo an expert examination. But then the investigation loses the opportunity to obtain objective data on psychological characteristics of a certain person that are relevant for a particular criminal case. Secondly, commercial psychological structures that help to bypass the barriers of psychodiagnostic research have been actively developing in the world. To put it simple, they train clients on the correct answers by known psychological methods. Even behaviour in psychophysiological examination with the use of polygraph can be trained. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to change one's handwriting, as well as to change one's gait, facial expressions or kinesics.

A promising area of investigative psychology that is of great practical importance and is closely related to operational psychology is the investigation of certain types of crime (Canter, 2010). A complete psychological analysis, including handwriting analysis, should aim to identify the psychological specificities of these individual types.

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Forensic psychology, in which psychological problems related to legal proceedings are studied, is a fi eld of legal psychology. It deals with problems of special forensic-psychological expertise and a complex expertise involving a psychologist. Among the problems we can highlight: •

legally significant emotional states as a subject of expert study,

•

psychological components of responsibility (in addition to the legal),

•

psychological aspects of the study of helpless condition of victims of sexual violence,

•

legally significant mental phenomena as a subject of expert psychological research,

•

comparative analysis of the categories of "affect" and "strong mental agitation",

•

legal grounds for the activity of the expert-psychologist,

•

the algorithm of forensic psychological research,

•

methodological support of the work of the psychologist-expert,

•

psychological aspects of the age of responsibility,

•

the category of "moral damage" from the point of view of forensic psychology,

•

the possibility of applying psychological knowledge in complex and special forensic examinations.

Forensic psychology examines psychological patterns of interaction between humans and law, works out recommendations aimed at increasing the efficiency of this interaction.

The methodological basis of forensic psychology is system-structural analysis of personality and the system of legal norms.

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With regard to forensic psychology, handwriting analysis can provide substantial support, perhaps even the largest relative to other parts of legal psychology, namely: 1.

As an independent and self-sufficient psychological instrument that allows to obtain objective data on a number of individual psychological traits of a person (of course the instrument must be sufficiently validated (Chernov, 2018).

2.

As a projective method, which allows revealing, clarifying and forming the common semantic content of the studied psychological phenomena (Шляпникова, 2005, p. 18).

3.

As a component of the battery of psychodiagnostic methods (Енгалычев, 2013), which provides a full picture of the psychological characteristics and psychological state of the examinee in the process of forensic psychological expertise.

4.

As an essential part of the psychodiagnostic toolkit of the complex psychological expertise including psychophysiological (with polygraph) and other complex forensic examinations.

5.

As an important part of psycholinguistic studies of handwritten text, when its content-oriented linguistic/philological and psychological analyses can be supplemented by external (formal) analysis of the text writing.

6.

As a method for testing research hypotheses of new approaches to the holistic study of human behaviour and products of human activity.

The importance of handwriting psychology for the mentioned points is additionally strengthened by the fact that it goes far beyond forensic psychology and turns out to be useful in complex interdisciplinary researches and expertises related, for example, to the work of joint operational-investigative groups. In particular, when investigating cases of violent death with signs of suicide, definite suicide or pseudo-suicide. Suicide cases have many forms, 15

which could be psychologically assessed. Ranging from true suicide or suicide by negligence to murder disguised as a suicide.

Neither every set of individual psychological features, nor every accentuation of character or every psychological single-stage or prolonged trauma can lead to violence against oneself. Therefore, the search for such associations between the texts left by suicidals (directly written before committing suicide and written much earlier) and their psychological profiles can lead us to the understanding, how to detect the features that are highly likely to indicate pre-suicidal willingness. The absence of such features could, accordingly, indicate a murder or an accident.

Penitentiary psychology studies the psychological basis of resocialization, i.e. the restoration of previously disturbed qualities of a person necessary for him or her to fully live in society. Penitentiary psychology investigates the following problems: •

efficiency of punishment,

•

dynamics of personality of a convict in the process of execution of punishment,

•

formation of special behavioural features under different conditions of prison regime,

•

special features of value orientation and stereotypes of behaviour under conditions of social isolation,

•

improvement of current criminal and correctional legislation,

•

correction and re-education of convicts (Hawk, 1997; Ушатиков, 2001; Schwartz, 2003).

Closely cooperating with correctional law, penitentiary psychology is called upon to develop practical recommendations for the resocialization of convicts, as well as to develop tools and techniques for psychological correction of offenders' personality.

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According to (Романович, 2017), the content of penitentiary psychology is determined by its social and psychological meaning: the object of penitentiary psychology is not just a person, but a person belonging to a certain small group. In particular, offenders that are serving various types of sentences or collectives and persons who carry out the execution of criminal punishments, and hence the re-education of convicts should have a pronounced group orientation. Hence, penitentiary psychology cannot be limited to the individual psychological study of the personality of the educator or the convict. Personality should be studied as an open system in all respects and connections with the surrounding world, that is, in the socio-psychological context.

Therefore, the comparison of psychological and graphological portraits of criminals convicted of different types of crimes, like mercenary crimes and violent crimes against the person, primary and recidivism, male and female crime, adult crime and juvenile delinquency, etc., could be a promising task for handwriting psychology in the field of penitentiary psychology.

Interesting is also the approach to find graphological correlates of human resocialization, i.e. to restore the lost social qualities and connections of a person, which are necessary for normal life in society. Given the case of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1972), are any changes in handwriting recorded in response to dramatic changes in the social status of the individual, up to the diametrically opposite? If there is a dynamic of socio-psychological characteristics, then, following the basic provisions of handwriting psychology, corresponding changes in handwriting should be observed.

References Canter, D. (2010). Forensic Psychology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chernov, Y. (2018). Formal validation on handwriting analysis. In Y. Chernov & M.A Nauer (Eds.) Handwriting research. Validation and Quality. (pp. 37-69). Berlin: Epubli.

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Engalytchev, V. F. (1999). The Uses and Abuses of Profiling of Major Political Figures in the Soviet Union. First joint APLS-EAPL international conference «Psychology and Law». Dublin, Ireland.

Godwin, G. M.(Ed.) (2001). Criminal Psychology and Forensic Technology. A Collaborative Approach to Effective Profiling. Boca Radon: CRC Press.

Hawk, K.M.(1997). Personal reflections on a career in correctional psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 28(4), pp. 335-337.

Howitt, D.(2015). Introduction to Forensic and Criminal Psychology,5th.Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Langer, W. C. (1973). The Mind of Adolf Hitler. London: Secker & Warburg.

Schwartz, B.K. (2003). Correctional Psychology: Practice, Programming, and Administration. Kingston, New Jersey: Civil Research Institute Inc. Zimbardo P.G. (1972). Stanford prison experiment: A simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment. Philip G. Zimbardo, Inc., 1972. Аврутин, Ю. Е. (ред.). (2018). Оперативно-розыскная психология: учеб. пособие для вузов [Operational and investigative psychology: textbook for universities]. Москва: Юрайт. Ахмедшин Р.Л. (2010). Криминальная психология: Проблемы и перспективы [Criminal Psychology: Problems and Prospects]. Вестник Томского государственного университета. 341, 114-117. Беличева С.А. (1994). Основы превентивной психологии [Fundamentals of preventive psychology]. Москва: Редакц.-изд. центр консорциума «Соц. здоровье России». Горелов И.Н., Енгалычев В.Ф. (1988). Невербальные компоненты общения на допросе [Non-verbal components of communication at interrogation]. Проблемы повышения эффективности применения юридической психологии: ученые записки Тартуского госуниверситета. 815, 124–134. Енгалычев В.Ф. (2001a). Дистанционная психодиагностика личности: история, методы, предмет [Distance psychodiagnostics of personality: history, methods, subject]. Современные психотехнологии в образовании, бизнесе, политике: материалы Международной научно-практической конференции. Москва: РАГС, 99-101.

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Енгалычев В.Ф. (2001b). Посмертная судебно-психологическая экспертиза [Post-mortem forensic-psychological examination]. А.М. Столяренко (ред.), Прикладная юридическая психология: Учебное пособие для вузов (420-430). Москва.: ЮнитиДана. Енгалычев В.Ф., Шипшин С.С. (2013). Психодиагностические методы исследования в судебно-психологической экспертизе. Учебное пособие для студентов факультетов психологии высших учебных заведений [Psychodiagnostic methods of research in the forensic-psychological expertise. Textbook for students of the faculties of psychology of higher educational institutions] Калуга: КГУ им. К.Э. Циолковского. Оттоленги С. (1926). Экспертиза почерка и графическая идентификация (перевод с итальянского) [Handwriting expertise and graphic identification (translation from Italian)]. Москва: Изд-во НКВД РСФСР. Романович Г.Г. (2017). Пенитенциарная психология [Penitentiary Psychology]. Минск: изд-во Минского института управления. В.М. Шевченко et al. (2012). Психология оперативно-розыскной деятельности: учеб. Пособие для студентов вузов, обучающихся по специальности «Юриспруденция» [Operational and investigative psychology. Manual for the students of higher educational institutions, studying on a speciality "Jurisprudence"]. Москва: ЮНИТИ-ДАНА- Закон и право. Ситковская О.Д., Андрианов М.С., Кроз М.В., Ратинова Н.А. (2016). Криминальная психология. Курс лекций [Criminal Psychology. Course of lectures]. Москва: Проспект. Ушатиков, А. И., Казак, Б. Б. (2001). Основы пенитенциарной психологии [Fundamentals of penitentiary psychology]. Учеб ник под ред. С. Н. Пономарева. Рязань: Академия права и управления Минюста России. Шляпникова И.А., (2005). Проективные методы психодиагностики [Projektiven Methods of Psychodiagnostics]. Учебное пособие под редакцией Е.Л. Солдатовой. Челябинск: Изд-во ЮУрГУ. Шнейдер, Л.Б. (2018). Психология девиантного и аддиктивного поведения детей и подростков : учебник и практикум для академического бакалавриата. Москва: Юрайт.

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Related topics from HandWritingBiblio Wittlich, B. (1948). Angewandte Graphologie. Teil 1: Die Graphologie im Dienste der Persönlichkeitsbewertung; Teil 2: Die Graphologie im Deinste der Verbrechensaufklärung.

Berlin: de Gruyter.

Gabriel-Polsterer, C. (1959): Untersuchung graphologischer Gutachten über Verbrecher und Geisteskranke. Diagnostica, 5. Jg., Heft 1, 25-33.

Wallner, T. (1987): Kann man kriminelle Disposition aus der Handschrift ablesen? Kritische Anmerkungen zum Grundrhythmus und zur „kriminellen Disposition“. Manuskript.

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Computergestützte Graphologie

Handschriftendiagnostik

Die Einstellung zum Computer in der Graphologie von den Herausgebern

Im Rahmen der Archivarbeit stießen wir auf einen Artikel von Rudi Danor und Dafna Yalon aus dem Jahre 1986 mit dem Titel „Der Computer in der Graphologie, ein Hilfsmittel?“, der uns zu nachfolgenden Überlegungen anregte.

In dem vor 33 Jahren publizierten Beitrag geben die Autoren eine ganz klare und präzise Übersicht über die Möglichkeiten und Vorteile der Computergraphologie. Sie beschreiben vier israelische Applikationen von Israel Odem, Zwi Popowsky, Yitzhak Perry und eine von den Autoren selbst entwickelte. Interessanterweise änderte sich bei allen nachfolgenden modernen Programmen, die in verschiedenen Ländern entwickelt wurden, am Prinzip der Applikationen in der Computergraphologie kaum etwas. Das unveränderte Prinzip ist wie folgt: Man schätzt die Handschriftmerkmale in einer systematischen Form in einem Programm ein, das im Anschluss die psychologischen Eigenschaften berechnet. Der Unterschied zwischen den verschiedenen Applikationen liegt indem, wie sie die Handschriftmerkmale mit Eigenschaften verbinden und welche Merkmale sie verwenden. Es gibt, wie es die Autoren auch beschreiben, viele zu einfache und weniger sinnvolle Varianten, aber auch einige sehr gute und fundierte Programme wie z.B. GraphoPro (www.graphopro.ch), HSDetect oder Handwriting Analyzer (www.sheilalowe.com).

Unverändert ist weiterhin, dass Graphologen in ihrer Arbeit jene Applikationen ignorieren und sich nie ernsthaft mit neuen Technologien auseinanderzusetzen. In den vergangenen 30 Jahren konnte man anhand der Computergraphologie viele Daten sammeln, auswerten und statistisch analysieren.

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Die anonymisierten Daten konnte man für andere Kollegen und Wissenschaftler zugänglich machen. Man konnte auf diese Weise besser zur Validierung der mit Recht oft kritisierten Graphologie beitragen. Anhand von Software konnte man die Graphologie endlich transparent machen, was bei traditionellen Lehrbüchern und anderen Publikationen nicht wirklich der Fall ist. Dadurch ist folgender Vorwurf von Uwe Kanning („Von Schädeldeutern und anderen Scharlanen“, 2010, S. 96/96) in Bezug auf die Computergraphologie nicht mehr relevant: „Selbst wenn alle Merkmale überzeugend messbar wären, bliebe immer noch das Problem der klaren Zuordnung einzelner Charakterisierungen. Bei jedem Merkmal finden sich in der Literatur viele Eigenschaften, die einer bestimmten Merkmalsausprägung zugeordnet werden. So listet Ploog z. B. allein in Hinblick auf das Merkmal ,Grosse Schrift‘ nicht weniger als zehn Eigenschaften auf: Enthusiasmus, Expansionsdrang, Unternehmergeist, Aktivität, Durchsetzungsdrang, Wirkungsdrang, Betriebsamkeit, schwacher Wirklichkeitssinn, Naivität uns schliesslich Impulsivität. Wie soll der Graphologe mit dieser Flut an Charakterisierungen umgehen? Gilt immer alles in gleichem Masse? Sind manche Eigenschaften dominanter als andere? Können sich negative und positive Eigenschaften gegenseitig neutralisieren? Wie wird überhaupt sichergestellt, dass alle Graphologen untern der Bezeichnung ,Betriebsamkeit‘ dasselbe verstehen?“ Die Erklärung, dass man dies im Rahmen der Ausbildung lernt, ist nicht wirklich plausibel. Die klassische Ausbildung ist genauso wenig transparent und ziemlich veraltet. Bereits 1997 schriebt Angelika Seibt (zitiert nach dem Betrag „Methodisch strukturiertes Vorgehen als Mittel der Qualitätssicherung“, Zeitschrift für Schriftpsychologie und Schriftvergleichung, Jh. 69, Heft 3-4/05, 2005): „Ich habe eine 5-jährige Ausbildung mit Zwischenprüfung und Abschlussprüfung und zahlreiche Gutachten absolviert. Inhalt der Ausbildung waren die graphologischen Klassiker Klages, Pophal, Pulver, Heiss, Müller-Enskat, 22

Pfanne und andere. (...) Das in meiner Ausbildung erworbene Wissen hat die Grundzüge meiner schriftpsychologischen Arbeit bestimmt. Hat mir aber dieses Wissen für meine Praxis aber auch genügt? Nein – es hat nicht genügt.“ Können sich heutzutage Studenten oder Berufspsychologen so etwas leisten?

Die in einem Computerprogramm integrierte graphologische Logik ist eindeutig, explizierbar und transparent. Ihr ist das zueigen, was der traditionellen Ausbildung fehlt. Daher muss computergestützte Handschriftanalyse ein unabdingbarer Teil der Ausbildung sein.

Die statistischen Auswertungen unterstützen die Forschung und bringen neue Ideen und Erkenntnisse hervor. Er ist heutzutage kaum denkbar, dass sich ein Arzt oder ein Psychologe nicht ständig weiter entwickelt, nicht ständig neue Beiträge lesen oder neuen Arzneimittel und Methoden anzuwenden versuchen. Das gehört selbstverständlich zu ihren Aufgaben. Die praktizierenden Graphologen hingegen bleiben ihrem einst erlernten Handwerk treu. Wirklich neue Erkenntnisse oder weiterführende Ideen gibt es hier selten.

Trotzdem kann man optimistisch in die Zukunft sehen, weil wir auf verschiedenen internationalen Kongressen und Konferenzen sehen, dass bei jungen Psychologen, Soziologen oder Forensiken ein großes Interesse an der Schriftpsychologie inklusive der Computergraphologie besteht und sich dadurch in der Garde der „guten alten Handwerker“ allmählich eine Veränderung hinsichtlich Mentalität, Einstellung und Arbeitsweise vollziehen wird, die das Fachgebiet zeitgemäss modernisiert.

Verwandte Themen aus der HandWritingBiblio Danor, R., & Yalon, D. (1986). Der Computer in der Graphologie, ein Hilfsmittel? Zeitschrift für Menschenkunde. Zentralblatt für Schriftpsychologie und Schriftvergleichung, 1(50), 214–220 (Artikel ist online abrufbar in der HandWritingBiblio unter https://handwritingbiblio.info/bibliography/.)

23

Personalty Factors

Handwriting Diagnostic

Ambition. A Graphological Approach

by Stefaan Lievens, Kiyo Fujiki and Luc Crevits

Introduction by the editors The following article is part of the archive „HandwritingBiblio“ as it was published in 2010 in "The Graphologist, Vol. 28, No. 2, Issue 107". Dick Schermer and Kiyo Fujiki suggested to republish this article, which shows the results of a research cooperation between Prof. Em. Dr. Stefaan Lievens (Department of Psychology and Neuropsychology, Ghent University in Belgium), Kiyo Fujiki (Director Fujiki B.V. Consultants Amsterdam, Kyoto) and Prof. Dr. Luc Crevits (Department of Neurology, Ghent University in Belgium).

Ambition: Definition Ambition is defined as a desire to obtain, i. e. an aspire to a good or better achievement of a function, a task, diligence and activity. There are a lot of concepts, which are more or less synonyms or characteristics for ambition: assertiveness, ego-determination, seeking domination or striving for power.

Aspirations are the expectation and hope, which we nourish. They are a nutrient medium for ambitions. Ambition with social acceptable strategies can help us in self-actualization or self-development. Feeling self-esteem is a function of the success that we can obtain in reality or in our own perception, aspirations or ambitions. Someone with poor success and high ambition, means a dent in the self-esteem. Good luck and little ambition refers to a lack of self-knowledge and self-confidence. Ambition makes us distinctive focus on one purpose. In a competitive, globalizing economy, it is undeniable that achievement is increasing rapidly. In this way ambition is stimulated by pep talk and affects a mix of power and sharp-cut objectives. The social 24

structures, values and attitudes that encourage people psychologically and socially are forced to be ambitious. The realisation of ambition requires a lot of emotional investment, desire and passion. The desire for a higher status is great. Ambition implies energy, decisiveness and the formulation of well-defined objectives. Thus it is obvious that the energy of people with dynamic potential but without clear objectives can be useless and unnecessarily wasted. A cross-fertilisation between passion and ambition is the secret weapon of many successful people. In an interview for personnel selection, candidates with a successful working and ambitious image are privileged. Companies have a preference for these personality characteristics. But too much is too much: a candidate who yearns to rapid promotion without being sustained efficacy, effort and competence in addition to place, digs his own grave.

However, men and women differ in their striving for competency. In ambitious efforts, there are gender-based components. In an earlier, more conservative design, it was evident that girls did not study and became operating household tasks and childcare. With feminism and emancipation, a positive change and a move have evolved. As well as a housewife, the househusband is promoted and nearly as many girls as boys attend to high school or university. Fortunately! This does not prevent that women regularly knock on the “glass ceiling� in achieving their ambition and promoting in their careers. There are still many inhibitions and resistances towards women in topmanagement. In the experience of ambition and dreams, people must stay realistic in order not to find themselves in an unreal fantasy with unreachable aims. Ambition can evolve, it never becomes saturated; like seawater, the more you drink it, the more you get thirsty.

Some people aim very high in their ambition. This statement occurs frequently. In the organizational psychology. According to the Peter principle, many people will have a promotion to a level of incompetency. The examples are legion: a good parliamentarian can become an inefficient minister; a good worker fails as a foreman. What power and money do with people is a question with no simple answer. Faust, the main character from Goethe’s 25

masterpiece, is a man with limitless, unstoppable ambitions. When he noted that all scientific knowledge that he has gathered could not help him, he resorted to his magic and alchemy. At that time he meets Mephistopheles, a servant of the devil, who accepted a challenge that he would succeed to fall Faust.

In the pathological sense, excessive assertiveness and ambition lead to shameless power, tyranny, a complex of superiority and maniacally self-conceit. Psychopathic persons regularly demonstrate excessive desire of power and ego-profiling with dangerous and antisocial dimensions, even leading to kill.

Is ambition genetically determed or is it a product of social environment, family or culture? Analogous to the neurobiological approach of Depue and Collins (1999), we suggest that a psychobiological threshold model could explain the effects of individual differences in dopamine transmission on behaviour and their relation to ambition as a personality trait. Exemples, in particular of the parents, obviously can influence the height and the direction of ambition.

Ambition in psychological literature Apart from Freud and Jung, Adler (1870-1937) is the third prominent figure in depth-psychology. Against the overload concept of sexuality of Adler stays the fundamental concept of the individual assertiveness. According to Adler, the strongest human motive is the desire for power. Basic concepts like the experience of inferiority and the striving for dominance acquired a wide reputation. For Adler, the experience of physical organ inferiority is very important. Minority of physical organs means that some organ, parts of the body or the experience of the body is less functioning. Examples of an objective feeling of minority: to see or hear badly deformed parts of the body. Examples of a subjective feeling of minority: imaginary ugliness.

26

In the experience and perception of inferiority, two attitudes are possible: Passivity and defeatism (accepting inferiority). If the sense of inferiority has a major influence, a complex of inferiority may develop.

Compensation: a resistent reaction versus a real or alleged less functioning of organs or feelings of the body for attaining a higher level of acting. Adler distinguishes a real and an unreal compensation: • Real compensation: the compensation is realistic when the tools have a social accepted value. E.g. in spite of his handicap of stutter Demosthenes became a well-known speaker and Lord Byron, born with a deformed feet, swimmed across the Hellespont.

• Unreal compensation: a negative social compensation. E.g. a husband being subordinate to his wife, may compensate his inferiority by an authoritarian attitude at work (Lievens, 1998).

For Adler ambition and the motive of power are closely linked. In Murray‘s standard work „Exploration in Personality“, he describes the power for dominance (1943) as: to try to influence behavior, sentiments or ideas of others. To work for an executive position. To lead manage, govern. To coerce, restrain, imprison. The content: „To work for an executive position“ is related to ambition. The „need of power“ is associated with dominance (Atkinson, 1988). Atkinson (1958) also speaks about the “need of achievement” or the need to performe, to realise.

According to Atkinson, achievement means a competitive activity in order to excel, the desire to win and striving for an unique performance, the will to attain performance for long term. In any case, it is an instrumental activity oriented to results. A need of achievement is synonymous of an ambitious drive.

In the typology of Spranger (1921), the powerful human being is defined as somebody who strives to the control of beings and objects.

27

Method of examination The personality trait ambition (i.e. achievement and dominance) of the Edwards Personal Preference Shedule combined with an external evaluation of ambition serve as an internal and external criterion of ambition. Following these double criterions, 45 subjects were selected for analysis of their handwritings between May 2006 and May 2009. The sample showed a homogeneous composition: all subjects were between 25 and 35 years, all men in an external job of sale of fast moving consumer goods to technical material (e.g. selling textile machinery).

For the diagnostic determination of ambition, two aspects were used: 1. The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) (1959) has 225 pairs of statements, selected on a same level of social desirability. All statements are phrasings of Edward, which refer to the need system of H. A. Murray (1938). The tendency of responsiveness of social desirability decreases in the E.P.P.S. by bringing together statements that are tested fore(going) on a continuum of equal social desirability.

The following variables will be discussed: achievement (=ambition) ference order autonomy ment

de-

exhibition

affiliation

interception

succorance

dominance

abase-

nurturance change

endurance

heterosexuality

aggression

The Dutch application of the E.P.P.S (Tjoa, 1973 and 2006) was used.

For the diagnosis of ambition the variables ambition and domination were retained. In the E.P.P.S. ambition is described as to will and to can perform achievements in study and to strive to success in society, to obtain regard, prestige and esteem by means of profession and job or tasks in work situations. Negatively this drive is associated with sociability, 28

warmth of feelings and friendliness. Ambition refers to the motivation for achievement in work situations, for demands and trying to exceed others in competence and to will doing better than others. Ambition refers to success in society. Dominance means striving for assertiveness, leadership, organization, giving instructions, prominence, self-confidence and social competency. A dominant person is assertive, strives to leadership, a drive to leadership and power.

2. Besides a high score on ambition and dominance in the E.P.P.S., we have taken a behavior oriented evaluation as a second parameter, based on the judgment of the leader of the department or the C.E.O. two years after recruitment: a. To ask in conversations of performance appraisal for a bonus or for horizontal or vertical promotion. b. To ask for a higher salary. c. Questions about the further course of the career. d. Gather knowledge about the succession in the department of the company. e. Striving to status symbol: type of company car, area of the office desk, a personal place on the company parking.

By the external evaluation for the environment, these ambitious attitude can be seen in the manifestations of social life and in verbal expressions. For graphological analysis we have maintained only those subjects, who have scored higher than 7 on a stanine-value on the aspects of ambition or achievement and dominance. Personality variables of the E.P.P.S. have norms in stens or standard nines. In stanine-values, the sample is divided in 9 categories. The distribution of the individuals following the curve of Gausz means that the majority of subjects are situated on the middle group. Following the second criterion, only those subjects are retained, who at least attain a positive evaluation on 3 characteristics of the performance evaluation of ambiti29

on. A common denominator was the fact that all the subjects have had this evaluation twice. We asked the C.E.O.s and the leaders of the sales department for an evaluation of those behavior oriented personality aspects. For our examination we selected those collaborators who obtained the notion for their appraisal. The different characteristics for ambition-achievement were judged on a scale: weak, medium, more than medium and strong.

Forty-five persons corresponded to the double criterion ambition-achievement and dominance and the evaluation on the scale.

For the graphological analysis, we applied the method of Crépieux-Jamin (1970). This classification contains 7 species of handwriting (genres) and 175 types. E. g. the species of handwriting contains types as speed, slow, overhasty, slackening. We summare the global meaning of these 7 species of handwriting: • Size (dimension): degree of expansivity of the personality, vitality, selfaffirmation.

• Direction (direction): mood and development of mood, flexibility versus rigidity and egocentrism versus altruism, and sociability.

• Connection (continuité): stability of feelings, co-ordination and consistency.

• Form (forme): degree of identity and organization, simplicity, naturalness, originality.

• Pressure (pression): psychic robusticity, type of self affirmation and regularity.

• Speed (vitesse): degree of activity, degree of speeding of the reactions.

• Layout (ordonnance): order, capacities for organization, adaptability, degree of systematic reasoning

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The 7 species of writing are also present in other graphological systems, e. g. Haenen-Van der Hout (Lievens, Fujiki, de Monchy, 1999).

Graphology and ambition In the graphological literature, there is an agreement that the following characteristics of a signature are signs of an ambitious attitude: moderately great, strong pressure, rising, with first name or initial of the first name and not too far from the text. Because written letters of application are out of fashion since electronic media, we did study persons without signature.

This could be a restriction. In his chapter about „Etude pratique des caractères“, Carton (1942) with his enormous experience of one hundred thousand of handwritings, describes the graphological features of ambition (p.

108-109). He makes the difference between legitimate and illegitimate ambition (légitime-illégitime). On a passionate manner striving to useful results, the will to push on in social work, the endurance for improving a better material situation with honest means, are for this author legitimate manifestations of ambition, which need an intensive psychomotor activity. Indications in handwriting are: uphill baseline, strong degree of connections, dynamic, speed, agile. In the signature: uphill, a centripetal end of the letters, an underlined signature, greater than the text. It suggests a tendency to profiling.

Socially not accepted ambition refers to an excessive desire of status, honor, power, wealth, striving for titles or decorum.

The link with pride and vanity is present. This modality of ambition is expressed in handwritings by superfluous writing, roll in letters, capital with rounded arcades and pointed ends. According to Carton (1942), the attitude of unsocial ambition is difficult to correct. We may not forget that these findings are dating 70 years ago with a very different culture of writing. Marks of ambition by de Salberg (1938, p. 125) are: rising baseline and signature and great upper zone of the letters. Beauchataud (1988, p. 243) mentions: rising baseline, centrifugal strokes, ample and upper elevated capitals, rising signature, horizontal strokes, sharp and decisive. The autographic texts are 31

collected by the subjects with a written text of an auditive logical-verbal test of memory and of the texts of stories of the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943).

Examples of handwritings of ambitious persons Handwriting 1

Strong pressure, not connected, underzone to left, moderate speed, original form of letters, vertical, good distribution of the writing space between words and lines, type of script-writing. Conclusion: a hard but controlled and directed ambition.

Handwriting 2

Good legibility, moderate to strong pressure, upper and lower zone is full, width between the words, space distributed all over the page, clear line spacing, moderately wide line spacing, narrow left margins, rhytm with regu32

lar energy balancing. Conclusion: ambition directed by a strong will and endurance.

Handwriting 3

Difficult to read the text by the speed of writing, slightly wavy baseline, sharp with full upper zone of the letters, secondary thread (between letters) is made either without pressure or with very light pressure, formless in the middle of the words, long sharp t-bar. Conclusion: a burning, aggressive ambition with a lack of concern for others.

Handwriting 4

Angular and connective forms, deleted words, strong-extreme right slant, strong pressure, irregular right margins, arcades, consistent rhythm, modera33

te legibility, irregular word spacing, large letter size and variation in size in middle zone. Conclusion: an aggressive ambition with impatience and an agile tension and nervousness.

Handwriting 5

Name underlined, tendency to thread, poor middle zone for structure and size, wave, irregular , large lower zone length, under moderate legibility, contracted rhythm, full, arcade, letter form is hesitating and undecided with broken form of the letters, variation of slanted angle. Conclusion: an immature, uncertain and convulsive ambition.

Main characteristics of the 45 handwritings: •

Full: 43

•

Original letter form: 39

•

Vertical primary pressure: 38

•

Width 3 (between words): 37 - Width 4 (between lines): 28 - Width 2 (between letters): 23 - Width 1 (words): 17

•

Curled letter: 37

•

Right slanted: 34 34

•

Name underlined: 31

•

Deleted words or letters: 31

•

Emphasizing the first letter: 28

•

Speed: 27

•

Legibility: under moderate: 23, moderate: 19, good: 3

•

Upperzone Accent: 17 - Lowerzone Accent: 17 - Middlezone Accent: 6 Conclusion

1. There is not a unique type of personality traits for ambitious people because these personality traits are integrated in other aspects of the total person.

2. This statement is in accordance with motivation psychology: people can have a different behavior on the basis of an equal type of motivation and an equal behavior can be based on different kinds of motivation. The trait of ambition is not unidimensional but multifunctional with a wide range of expressions in behavior and attitudes.

3. A differential diagnosis between impulsiveness, rapidity, assertiviness, nervousness and ambition is difficult.

4. The conclusions of this research oblige to caution because the population is oriented to a selective group: sales people, only men and dutch speaking persons in Belgium.

5. Ambition is not an unidimensional parameter or personality trait. The realization of ambition happens in different manners as well as in psychological examination, in behavior as in graphological analysis. The concept of ambition must be seen in a global context of personality traits and situational data. Ambition can be expressed on different ways from agressiveness to a more subtile, calculated, overt or hidden attitude.

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Bibliography Atkinson, J. W.: Motives in fantasy, action and society, Princeton: N.J. Van Nostrand, 1958.

Beauchataud, G.: Apprenez la graphologie, Semaise: Edition J., 1988.

Carton, P.: Le diagnostic de la mentalité par l’écriture, Paris : Le François, 1942.

Crépieux-Jamin, J.: ABC de la graphologie, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 1970 (4e uitgave).

Depue, R. A. & Collins, P. F.: Neurobiology of the structure of personality : dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation, and extraversion. Behav. Brain Sci. 1999, 22 : 491-517. de Salberg, R.: Manuel de graphology usuelle, Paris : Hachette, 1938.

Edwards, A.L.: Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, Manual Revised, New York: The Psychological Corporation, 1959.

Lievens, S.: Veldverkenningen in de Psychologie, Antwerpen: Garant Uitgevers, 1998.

Lievens, S. & Fujiki, K. & de Monchy, M.: Tussen de lijnen! Over grafologie, Leuven, Garant, 1999 Murray, H. A.: Explorations in personality, New York: Oxford University Press, 1938.

Spranger, E.: Lebensformen, Halle: Niemegen, 1921.

Tjoa, A. S. H.: De Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (E.P.P.S., Sociale Wenselijkheid, Gedwongen Keuze en een Nederlandse E.P.P.S.-versie), Amsterdam: Swets en Zeitlinger, 1973.

Tjoa, A. S. H.: E.P.P.S. en G.E.P.P.S., Handleiding Edwards Personal Preference Shedule, Amsterdam: Harcourt Assessment BV, 2006.

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Rezension

Rund um die Handschrift

Ein Genie, das eigene Wege ging. Rezension zu Steffen Menschings „Schermanns Augen“ von Antje Telgenbüscher

Zwölf Jahre hat Steffen Mensching an seinem opus magnum gearbeitet (Buchcover: Wallstein Verlag, Foto: Wallstein – Pressefoto Mensching_Steffen – Friederike Lüdde)

Was für ein voluminöses Buch! Eine Zumutung für den Leser? Oder lohnt es sich, diesem über 800 Seiten starken Roman entsprechende Lese- und das heißt wertvolle Lebenszeit zu widmen?

Er handelt von zwei großen Themen. Zum einen geht es um Rafael Schermann (geb. 1874 in Krakau; gest. ca. 1943), den Graphologen, dessen Prominenz im vorigen Jahrhundert vor allem darauf beruhte, dass er weit mehr war und auch sein wollte als das. Eine schillernde Gestalt: Psychographologe, Schriftenfühler oder -deuter, Graphosoph. Als Hellseher ließ er sich ungern bezeichnen, doch auch wenn er immer von der Schrift ausging, war 37

diese – ein Blick genügte ihm − nur das Medium, das ihn etwas „sehen“ ließ.

In seinen eigenen Worten: „Wenn ich eine Schrift ansehe, lösen sich die Buchstaben, das Blatt Papier wird mir zum Spiegel, darin ich Figuren erscheinen und sich bewegen sehe wie auf einem Film.“ Er sah in der Schrift Verbrechen, die der Schreiber begangen hatte, und er sah in dessen Zukunft. Angeblich konnte er auch – umgekehrt − vom Menschen auf dessen Schrift schließen.

Steffen Mensching (geb. 1958 in Ost-Berlin) hat für diesen historischen Roman überaus gründlich recherchiert. Er hat all das, was an Publikationen über seinen Protagonisten bekannt ist, minutiös verarbeitet: Schermanns eigene Schriften wie auch Bücher über ihn, vor allem die Abhandlung des österreichischen Psychiaters Oskar Fischer, der Experimente mit Schermann durchführte, um dessen Fähigkeiten zu testen. Menschings enorme Rechercheleistung zeigt sich auch, wenn er Schermanns Wirken in der weiten Welt der 20er Jahre nachzeichnet: Seine Reisen nach Amerika ebenso wie sein Auftreten in der Wiener Gesellschaft mit berühmten Klienten wie Karl Kraus, Oskar Kokoschka und vielen anderen.

Das zweite und nicht minder raumgreifende Thema des Romans aber ist sein Schauplatz und die Zeit, in der er spielt: Mitten im zweiten Weltkrieg, in einem Arbeitslager im tiefen Sibirien. Tatsächlich soll Schermann irgendwo im sowjetischen Gulag verschwunden sein, und genau dort nimmt der Autor die Spur seines Protagonisten auf, um das letzte Kapitel in dessen Leben zu schreiben. Damit verlässt er das Terrain der gesicherten Fakten und begibt sich ins Reich der Phantasie. Der Leser muss sich damit abfinden, nicht überschauen zu können, wo die Historie endet und die Fiktion beginnt – und der Autor muss sich bewähren als einer, der nicht nur Reales nacherzählt, sondern Menschen und Geschichten so erfindet, dass der Leser überzeugt ist, „Wirklichkeit“ präsentiert zu bekommen. Das ist Steffen Mensching gelungen. Er führt dem Leser den Alltag im Gulag so anschaulich, so lebendig vor Augen, dass man immer stärker hineingezogen wird ins Geschehen. Eine Vielzahl unterschiedlichster, farbig gezeichneter Personen tritt auf – die oben 38

und die unten, die Mächtigen, die Gerissenen, die Schwächsten, jeder mit seiner eigenen Geschichte. Dreh- und Angelpunkt des Ganzen bleibt aber die Person des Rafael Schermann.

Schriftsteller Steffen Mensching ist auch Schauspieler und Regisseur und leitet seit Jahren das Theater Rudolstadt. Dass er sich mit Inszenierungen auskennt, merkt man seinem Schreiben an. Er zeigt Sinn für Theatralisches, für dramatische Wendungen, so als spielten sich Szenen auf der Bühne ab. Die Requisiten hat er genau im Blick, alle Details, von den Örtlichkeiten des Lagers bis zur Kleidung der Menschen. Die Kehrseite dieser Genauigkeit ist allerdings, dass sich der Autor in Einzelheiten verlieren kann. Die Lust an der Recherche scheint manchmal ebenso mit ihm durchzugehen wie das Bestreben, eine Fülle von Begebenheiten üppig auszumalen. Angesichts dieser schier überwältigenden Masse von Namen, Orten, Fakten, ob bei den Rückblenden oder der Schilderung des Lagerlebens, ist man versucht, hier und da diagonal zu lesen. Weniger wäre mehr gewesen.

Dennoch gelingt es dem Autor, das Interesse des Lesers wachzuhalten, gegen Ende nimmt die Spannung sogar zu. Man lässt sich vom Erzählstrom tragen, in dem sich Tragik mit ironischen Zwischentönen mischt, Erschütterndes mit prallen, auch komischen Szenen, von deftigem Humor geprägt.

Ein glücklicher Kunstgriff war, dem alten Schermann einen jungen Mann an die Seite zu stellen. Otto Haferkorn, ein deutscher Kommunist, dient ihm als Übersetzer und wird sein Freund. Die Lebensgeschichte dieser (erfundenen) zweiten Hauptperson, ebenfalls in Rückblenden erzählt, spiegelt viel Zeitgeschichte wider. Mit dem jungen Otto kommt aber auch Dramatik ins Spiel, die Handlung wird vorangetrieben, denn mit ihm greift der Autor mitten hinein ins volle Menschenleben, sogar ein Kind wird gezeugt, das allerdings – was nachvollziehbar ist – nicht Schermanns besondere Augen erbt. Diese „von sanften Schleiern umflorten Augen“ (Max Hayek, 1921) oder, wie es im Roman heißt: „Schermanns Augen waren dunkelbraun, verschattet, wenn er einem ins Herz sah, angsteinflößend, bedrohlich“. Und an anderer Stelle: „Am auffälligsten waren seine Augen, die stundenlang trüb ins Leere starren 39

konnten, um den Gesprächspartner dann, plötzlich, von einer Sekunde zur nächsten, stechend ins Visier zu nehmen. Ein Chamäleonblick.“ Noch ein Blick auf die besondere Form des Ganzen: Die Erzählung fließt ohne Unterbrechung durch Absätze dahin, nur ab und zu ist eine Leerzeile eingefügt. So folgt ein dichter Textblock dem anderen. Das erschwert das Lesen, auch weil die Grenzen der Dialoge fließend sind und es nicht immer klar ist, wer gerade spricht. Mit diesem Stilprinzip wird offenbar an ein berühmtes Pendant, an „Die Ästhetik des Widerstands“ von Peter Weiss, erinnert. Ist dies nur als eine Hommage an das große Vorbild zu verstehen oder hat die Form etwas mit dem Inhalt, mit der Botschaft des Ganzen zu tun?

Vermutlich setzt sich der Autor von der gewohnten Form ab, da in ihr oft auch Triviales, nur Unterhaltsames vermittelt wird. Zusammen mit dem enormen Umfang seines Romans signalisiert auch dessen „andere“ Form, dass die Rede von etwas Unerhörtem, kaum Vorstellbaren ist, dem die Menschen im Gulag ausgeliefert sind. Ein System, das so etwas möglich macht, ist monströs.

Man muss sich einlassen auf dieses starke Buch, um viel über Zeitgeschichte sowie über einen außergewöhnlichen Menschen zu erfahren. Er galt als „ein Genie, das eigene Wege geht“ (Max Hayek, 1921), und diese führen weit weg von einer Schriftpsychologie, die um wissenschaftliche Fundierung und Anerkennung bemüht ist. Als „Graphologe“ müsste Schermann seinen gegenwärtigen Kollegen ein Dorn im Auge sein, verkörpert er doch gerade das, was heute vernünftigerweise verpönt ist, nämlich Schriftanalyse mit Esoterik zu vermischen.

Was von Schermanns übersinnlichen Fähigkeiten zu halten ist, mag jeder selbst entscheiden. Aber wie erscheint er, der Mann mit dem Chamäleonblick, in diesem Roman? Mensching lässt ihn Verblüffendes, ja Unerklärliches leisten, zeigt ihn aber auch als berechnendes Schlitzohr, das die Menschen um sich herum genau beobachtet, um sich seine Erkenntnisse dann zunutze zu machen. Ein genialer Menschenkenner – oder doch ein Scharlatan? Das 40

kommt auf die Situation an. Gelegentlich wird auch diese Seite an ihm sichtbar, hier hat der Roman hintergründigen Witz zu bieten. Otto Haferkorn jedenfalls glaubte nicht an „diesen Hokuspokus“, den sein Freund Schermann anstellt. Ihn festnageln will oder kann der Autor nicht. Letztlich bleibt es dem Leser überlassen, wie er diesen Mann beurteilt, der sicher eines besessen hat: Eine außerordentliche Intuition oder, mit den Worten eines Zeitgenossen, einen „unvergleichlichen graphologischen Instinkt“ (Max Hayek).

Bei Amazon verfügbar Schermanns Augen von Steffen Mensching Gebundene Ausgabe: 820 Seiten Verlag: Wallstein; Auflage: 1 (30. Juli 2018) che: Deutsch ISBN-10: 3835333380

ISBN-13: 978-3835333383

Psycho-Graphology - A Study of Rafael Schermann von Eugene S. Bagger Taschenbuch: 148 Seiten Englisch

Verlag: Hadley Press (11. Juli 2011)

ISBN-10: 1447418999

41

Sprache:

ISBN-13: 978-1447418993

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