Publications SCRIPTOR BOOKS GRAPHIC GESTURE - CREATIVE GESTURE by Nicole Boille GRAPHOLOGY is a term first coined in the late nineteenth century by Jean Hippolyte Michon and now in common use to describe a distinct human science which in Italy recently attained university status. The pioneers of graphology were Michon and Jules Crépieux-Jamin in France, the undisputed master Girolamo Moretti in Italy, Ludwig Klages in Germany, and Max Pulver in Switzerland. Several academic traditions now flourish, those of the Société Française de Graphologie and the Scuola Superiore of Urbino being among the more structured and well established. As an interdisciplinary study, graphology seeks to integrate a solidly researched core with educational, medical, neurophysiological, psychoanalytic, and statistical approaches, without obscuring its origins in the cultural anthropology of handwriting. Graphology draws upon its own theories and techniques for the study of the ‘graphic gesture’ that reveals the human essence. Our graphic gesture, whether spontaneous or laboured, indelibly distinguishes each one of us. We can trace its evolution from the first scribble to the developed adolescent hand. We can look for ‘alarm signals’ that foreshadow future problems or show the lingering effects of early experiences. We can trace the hidden forces behind mental suffering and predict the risks of deviancy or uncontrolled aggression. Graphologists, then, analyse writing over time to evaluate intelligence and attitudes, tendencies and motivations, emotions and the dynamic between the conscious and unconscious. Observation of handwriting may help to bring us closer to the sources of creativity inherent in us all. Our graphic gesture is a silent witness to the moment when our handling of the basic writing model becomes a creative gesture. NICOLE BOILLE is a graduate in psychology of the La Sapienza University of Studies of Rome and holds diplomas from the Société Française de Graphologie and the Groupement des Graphologues-Conseils de France. She is founder and president of ARIGRAF, the Associazione italiana di ricerca grafologica, based in Rome. She teaches comparative graphology at the Lumsa Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione in Rome. Among her publications are: Arte, critica, psicoanalisi, grafologia, Rome 1987, Écritures italiennes in Pierre Faideau’s Les Bases de la graphologie, Paris 1989, and Oltre il bianco. Panorama sulla grafologia, 1998. She writes for specialist journals. GRAPHIC GESTURE - CREATIVE GESTURE by Nicole Boille 315 pages 125 handwriting samples 56 Tables Price : £29.50 ISBN 1-8996539-5-3 BOOK ORDER FORM Back to SCRIPTOR BOOKS section SCRIPTOR BOOKS 123 Bickenhall Mansions LONDON W1U 6BT UNITED KINGDOM Tel/Fax: +44 20 7935 9884 e-mail: john.simopoulos@stcatz.ox.ac.uk