Issue 72

ver since man has put chisel to stone, and pen to paper, the presence and importance of personal writing styles has emerged. Our autographs bind contracts, affirm love letters, and if we happen to obtain celebrity status they are often collected. Whether it is the way we loop our y or dot our i, our handwriting can speak volumes about our character and perhaps even our state of mind when we jotted that long forgotten note or most recent journal entry. The controversial art of handwriting analysis, also known as graphology, is no new psychological evaluation technique, as Aristotle was known to employ it as early as 330 BCE. However, many people question the validity of its basis, citing its inconsistent findings in the scientific community, but one cannot deny that the way we write says something about us.

Writing is both an act of the mind and the coordination of the central nervous system and its linked appendages, causing there to be a great many factors that affect how we produce the forms that carry our very thoughts. One such local aficionado and practitioner of both handwriting analysis and questioned document examination is Gary W. Fyke, seasoned law enforcement investigator and military intelligence veteran.