Our health affects our handwriting, a new study suggests
Can handwriting help reveal the presence of neurological conditions in the writer? This is a question that Deborah Thorpe, from the University of York’s Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders, has been pondering for a number of years. Now, having taken part in a research project into handwritten material from an early 20th-century German psychiatric hospital, it appears that she may have an answer.
Thorpe carried out the research (along with her German collaborator, Markus Schiegg) into sources from the Irsee/ Kaufbeuren Psychiatric Hospital in west Bavaria. Doctors there believed that handwriting analysis was an important tool for diagnosis, and so, in the early 1900s, they asked patients to provide them with samples of their script. What they discovered was illuminating.
“One 39-year-old female patient suffered from progressive paralysis – a late-stage symptom of syphilis,” Thorpe told us. “Her script revealed distinctive signs of shakiness with the frequent omission of letters.
“Another letter, written by a 67-yearold patient diagnosed with dementia in 1906, displayed a tremor that affected his vertical and horizontal strokes.”
Doctors began to take the link between handwriting and health seriously in the late 19th century when psychiatry was first seen as a scientific discipline. “The assessment of mental abilities, like speech and writing, became more commonplace during this period,” says Thorpe, “This provided a window into patients’ medical conditions.”
This isn’t the first time that Thorpe has researched the subject. In 2014, she revealed how medieval scribes’ handwriting was affected by their wellbeing. One example was the 13th-century monk known as the Tremulous Hand of Worcester, whose script revealed a distinct tremor.
“It is my hope that such analysis can be combined with modern medicine to offer new insights into current medical conditions,” Thorpe says. You can read our 2014 article on Thorpe's original research at historyextra.com/ handwriting
“A patient with latestage symptoms of syphilis frequently omitted letters”