THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF GRAPHOLOGISTS (BIG) SILVER JUBILEE SYMPOSIUM TAKES PLACE 30/31st AUGUST 2008
We have booked our special Silver Jubilee Symposium at the prestigious venue of The Castle Hotel in Windsor, the jewel in the crown of beautiful towns in the UK. Windsor Castle is just across the road from the hotel and we can drink our morning cofee watching the Changing of the Castle Guards. The excellent Windsor Theatre, a very short walk from the hotel, presents plays before they move on to London's West End. The River Thames is just nearby and we have a boat trip organised for the Saturday evening, after the day's lectures.
The Castle Hotel has offered us very attractive terms and an elegant room, befitting the Hotel's style, with air- conditioning to avoid the summer's heat. The hotel has a high quality reputation and the rooms are comfortable and well appointed. There is free parking at the hotel for guests and also free broadband internet access available.
The special feature of this Silver Jubilee Symposium is that we have listened to the wishes of our members and made this an opportunity to have time to meet and talk with graphologists from all over the world, while also enjoying the four very excellent speakers who will bring their talents and knowledge to make this an even not to be missed.
In alphabetical order they are John Beck, Dor Gauthier, Lois Vaisman and Dafna Yalon and their quality is well known so there is no need to introduce them.
We plan to start on the Saturday with a lecture in the morning and one in the afternoon, with the boat trip in the evening and on the Sunday we will have Meryl Bolin, a very experienced graphologist from Australia, offering her handwriting for analysis during our workshop, which will give everyone a chance to have their say and learn from each other. Also, in the summing up, a chance to discuss it with her. After that there will be a lecture and after lunch the fourth lecture will be given. This means that though some people may wish to arrive on the Friday evening and have time to enjoy the company of other graphologists, there will not be any lectures on that evening, so those who want to come just for the lecture time, don't need to be in Windsor until the Saturday morning.
Windsor is a short journey from Heathrow and details of taxis that are not as expensive as the black cabs, will be provided for those who need to book them in advance. For people who want to drive, there is a large car park area that is free to delegates and to people staying at the hotel.
You can go on the Internet and Google 'Windsor' or 'Windsor Castle' to learn more.
Savill Garden
HOW TO BOOK
If you want to stay at the hotel, you book your accommodation directly with The Mercure Castle Hotel, 18 High Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1LJ, England.
website: Email
Telephone: 01753 851577
Your reference for accommodation is BRIT220808.
You also need to book with B..I.G. for the symposium activities, which include lunch and refreshments each day, plus the boat trip and all the facilities of the hotel. This you do by sending a cheque for £75 per day, that is £150 to cover everything for the two day event, to our treasurer:
Jenny Brooke, 15 Eleanor Road, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, SL9 9NA, UK
BOOKING FORM FOR THE NINTH SYMPOSIUM OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF GRAPHOLOGISTS
NAME......
ADDRESS......
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BOOKING DETAILS...... 2 days staying Saturday night 2 days non-resident 1 day non-resident
Please contact Elaine on for further information.
To give you some idea of the lectures, below are short previews to whet your appetite.
The dot under the microscope: a new look at holographic graphology
Dor Gauthier
DOR lectured at the June 07 meeting of the B.I.G. on the global aspects of graphology, the ' I, we, they' perspective in understanding the location of a person's focus. Expanding on the paradigm of Ginsburg, he would take a Sherlock Holmes approach and try to rehabilitate the details in graphology and interpret them in light of the global aspects. From pictures of various dots or details of a particular writing, he will show how they can be congruent or not with global aspects of that writing. In some cases, they could be a “red light” to look more closely to other aspects to solve the enigma of that particular writing. He can also analyse a whole writing, for example the one of Jackson Pollock and his paintings and show how the analysis of details can add a lot to the study of the global aspects only.
Dor Gauthier has been a full time handwriting analyst and a forensic document examiner for the past 30 years. He previously worked as a social worker for 6 years in the 70s
As The Graphologist readers will know, he has developed a passion for the history of graphology and the study of various methods of handwriting analysis in five different languages. He has written many articles in Journals and given many lectures on the subject in various countries. He has participated actively on discussion lists on the Net in the past 10 years.
I feel, therefore I am
The dominant role of the emotional sphere in the personality,
as seen inhandwriting and graphic tests
Dafna Yalon
CURRENT neuropsychological research of the emotional sphere has refined the understanding, that emotions have the first and also the last word in directing human behaviour. Emotional processing in the brain, which remains outside of our verbal capacities, is much more rapid and efficient than our logical thinking, and it is the most dominant aspect in the process of decision-making. The role of the "automatic pilot", often hijacking our logical thinking, is especially interesting in individuals who grew up in a dysfunctional environment, where family secrets prevail. Personal symbols that may pop-up in graphic tests have a most dramatic and significant role, as keys to understanding the unconscious "auto-pilot".
The human emotional structure is made of primary emotions (Affectivity) and cognitive and transitive emotional processing (secondary emotions). A new cyclic model of the Feeling – Thinking components, rather than Jung's linear vector, will be discussed.
The different emotional components, that are depicted in handwritings and graphic tests include: The intensity of the emotional reaction, its regulation, awareness and authenticity, congruence, differentiation vs. distortion, maturity and integration.
Emotional problems will be differentiated from temporary emotional states using Avé-Lallemant's system of "Signs of Distress". Cases of severe emotional disorders, such as Autism and Alexithymia will be presented. The important contribution of the Tree-test (3 trees), the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test, The Star-Wave Test, the Human Figure Drawing and Family Drawing, addressing deeper personality layers, shows the need to use graphic tests in addition to handwriting analysis for counseling purposes.
Use of Graphology in Custody Evaluations
Lois Vaisman
CUSTODY evaluation is a formal investigation that assesses each respective caretaker’s parenting skills in order to determine which party is best suited to care for the child. The examples used in this lecture are taken from highly contested cases ordered by the court after mediation had been unsuccessful. The evaluations involved both in-person and written interviews with the parents. Handwriting samples from the parents are augmented here with samples from others close to the cases, such as spouses or extended family.
Graphology is an excellent projective technique in the larger tool kit used to assess each party. Here, it has practical application to provide a broader personality profile of each individual. Graphology is particularly useful in custody evaluations, as each side has both an incentive and tendency to malign the other party, while favourably reporting their own parental role.
In this context, handwriting analysis can be used to ascertain a client’s core personality along with the strengths andlimitations that would determine custody decisions. Graphology can be used to disentangle often emotional rhetoric from the basics of the evaluation by focusing on the core characteristics of each individual.
For this lecture, she will be using actual cases that she has either evaluated or supervised and where she is familiar with the final recommendations. While discussing notable handwriting graphics, she will adhere to the laws of confidentiality by blocking names and any identifying information.
The following are some examples from a sample of 15-18 possible custody cases relevant to this lecture.
- Custody case between a brother and sister concerning the sister’s biological child. Additional handwriting samples include another sibling, the three siblings’ mother, as well as the handwriting of the spouses of the adversarial parties.\
- Custody case between a South American couple regarding custody of their three children, with handwriting samples in Spanish including one of the adolescents and the father.
- Custody case where the parents (never married) share one biological child, where the mother’s two other children are involved.
- Custody case of a severely handicapped child needing constant medical supervision and caretaking.
- Custody case of a father imprisoned for sexual crimes (against females) requesting visitation with his two male children.
Since this is a work in progress, additional cases will mostly likely be included in the presentation. As each case is unique, focusing on the graphics provides a way to clarify the complexity at hand while providing some insight into a contentious process.
Lois Vaisman, MSW, LCSW is a professional graphologist, licensed clinical social worker, and certified life coach. She is an adjunct professor of social work at Yeshiva University in New York. She is a graduate of Columbia School of Social Work, with a Psychoanalytical Certificate from New York University and a Master of Science in Special Education from Queens College. She studied graphology with Florence and Daniel Anthony and later co-directed the Psychology of Handwriting Program at New School University from 1980 to 1995. She is currently the vice-president of the American Society of Professional Graphologists. As a psychotherapist, life coach, and graphologist, she combines these disciplines for use in personnel selection, contested custody evaluations, collaborative divorce, and individual psychotherapy. Ms. Vaisman is a supervising clinician at the Bergen Family Center and maintains a private practice in New York City.
Recognising the many contradictory features in handwriting – our means of bringing a new depth to our analyses
John Beck
ONE of the main precepts of Jungian Psychology is that Life itself and all Psychic energy is the result of a tension between polar opposites within ourselves, and that our role in life is often trying to find a harmony and unity between them. Only when this has been done can we hope to achieve a measure of mental and spiritual balance within us.
John Beck has worked with Jungian theories for 30 years, applying these to Handwriting analysis. It became clear to him many years ago that indications in Handwriting nearly always manifest a large number of contradictory elements, and often it is beginners in Graphology that tend to be more aware of these than more experienced hands.
He is of the view however that these contradictory elements which appear in writing are there for reasons which are a good deal more important than one would imagine. They represent unresolved conflicts very often, be these minor in nature or very pronounced, and frequently they tend to fall into patterns with the same writer.
They are indicative of the tensions of polar opposites that Jung spoke of, but as they are in an unresolved state, the energy they contain is not set free for useful purposes, but tends to feed inner tension that can only have a distracting effect for the writer in question.
John Beck will attempt to show firstly how to recognize these patterns of major opposites appearing in writing, and then to interpret them in their own context. There are a large number of common contradictory elements, frequently known as Counter-dominants, and their correct interpretation is vital in the final scheme of the analysis.
In his view they offer a much more important role, for as Jung says, all tensions of opposites or neurosis contain the nucleus of a new Psychic order that could be born within that person….. our role as analysts is to show what these may be, and what benefits they could lead to.