Max Pulver is the author of four

graphology Graphology is the analysis of handwriting with attempt to determine someone's personality traits. No scientific evidence exists to support graphology, and it is generally considered a pseudoscience or scientifically questionable practice. Howe ...

books (1931, 1934, 1944 and 1949), several articles, and one novel (1927). He developed the theory of symbolism of space. His work discusses pressure, intelligence, and

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

. He founded the ''Schweizerische Graphologische Gesellschaft'' (Swiss Graphological Society) in 1950 and was president until his death.

Theories

Pulver's approach to graphology was influenced by the

psychoanalytic theories Psychoanalytic theory is the theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development that guides psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology. First laid out by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century, psyc ...

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

, examining

handwriting Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface A typeface (or font family) is ...

to understand the writer's

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...

and

subconscious In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. Scholarly use of the term The word ''subconscious'' represents an anglicized version of the French ''subconscient'' as coined in 1889 by the psycho ...

mind. Major

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sym ...

starts with the point, and examines where and how it travels. This travel is not restricted to strokes. It can be equally applied to white space within a page, or the page as a whole. Minor symbolism looks at the stroke structures, or sequence of stroke structures, reflecting upon what they are

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

s of. Within this context, a strong leftward moving stroke through a

signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

would be symbolic of removing one's self from life. How that removal manifests depends upon what else is contained within the handwriting.

Works

Books

''Himmelpfortgasse''. Munich: Kurt Wolff, 1927. A novel about

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...

use in 1920s Europe. ''Symbolik der Handschrift''. Zurich & Leipzig: Orell Füssli, 1931. Reprinted by Orell Füssli in 1940, 1945, 1949, and 1955. Reprinted by Kindler in 1964, with a new edition published by Kindler in 1972. This book introduced the idea that handwriting can be examined in three horizontal zones: upper strokes, main letters, and downstrokes loosely correlated with the Freud's idea of the super-ego, ego, and id. ''Trieb und Verbrechen in der Handschrift: Ausdrucksbilder asozialer Persönlichkeit''. Zurich & Leipzig: Orell Füssli, 1934. Reprinted by Orell Füssli in 1934, with a revised edition in 1948. ''Person, Charakter, Schicksal''. Zurich: Orell Füssli, 1944. Reprinted by Orell Füssli in 1948. ''Intelligenz im Schriftausdruck''. Zurich: Orell Füssli, 1949.

Articles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulver, Max Graphologists 1889 births 1952 deaths Swiss non-fiction writers Swiss male writers 20th-century non-fiction writers Male non-fiction writers