Personality traits in Moretti

graphological system
The Morettian graphological method allow to define the following
personality traits:

1. The altruistic and egoistic movement in Self:

Curved/Angular

Graphological signs concerned:

Curved: openness, unselfishness, yieldingness

Profused: expansion
Top Opening of A - O: sexual tender emotion
Angular: selfishness, self-preservation and self-defence
A Angles: reactivity, resentment, emulation
B Angles: persistency or stubbornness in clinging
C Angles: shrewdness, manipulation, savoir faire
Acute: sharpness, contradiction
Arid: intellectual, moral and material meanness
Wrapped up: distrust
Touching Letters: apprehension

2. Mental quantity: widths and distances in handwriting

Graphological signs concerned:

Letter Width: potential openness of the mind

Spacing between Letters: fair judgement, stingy or liberal
Spacing between Words: reasoning, judgement, criticism

3. Inventive abilities: uneveness

Graphological signs concerned:

Methodically uneven: originality, inventiveness, creativity

Disorderly (randomly uneven): disorder, entangled ideas
 and actions
Even: tendency to sheer reproduction
Pedantic: pedantry

4. Psychophysical energy: graphical pressure

Graphological signs concerned:

Heavy: roughness, physical strength

Filiform: delicacy in feelings
Refined: fineness in feelings
Off-and-on carved I: to be goal-oriented, domineering,
overbearing, independent
Off-and-on carved II: emotionality, impressionability

5. Reality perception related to sentiment of the Self: the size

of handwriting middle zone

Graphological signs concerned:

Medium size: proportion inclined

Large size: exaggeration of closing easiness, hyperbole
Bold: megalomania
Small size: stressed detail observing inclined
Tiny: refinement in observation, development and logic
conclusion
Meticulous: meticulousness

6. Specific modes of psychic energy channelling and

expression (graphical rhythm)

Graphological signs concerned:

Fluid: spontaneity
Jerky: inner contraddictions leading to decision taking
difficulty, surliness, anger
Calm: calmness
Slow: slowness
Rushing: recklessness, thoughtlessness
Springing: impulsiveness
Dynamic: dynamicism
 Short cut: abrupt decision making
Quick: speed
Impatient: impatience, restlessness
Austere: strictness
Bold: boldness
Hesitant: shyness
Wavering: indecision
Pondered: careful consideration
Diminishing: weakening
Stately: pompousness, prosopopoeia

7. Quality and intensity in affective relationships: graphic slant

Graphological signs concerned:

Forward Slant: languor, abandonment

Upright: self-possesion
Backward Slant: tendency to contradiction
Straight Extensions: inflexibility
Right Bent Extensions: acquiescence
Left Bent Extensions: repulsion

8. Psychological insight: axial direction

Graphological signs concerned:

Sinuous: psychological penetration

Twisted: control
Parallel: one-sidedness, lack of empathy
Lithe: unsincere sympathy

9. Character constancy: direction of lines

Graphological signs concerned:

Stable on the Line: firmness

Rising: easily fired, presumption
Descending: moral weakness, discouragement, yieldingness
Planted on the Line: seriousness and reliability
10.Continuity or fragmentation of inner movement: connection

Graphological signs concerned:

Connected: continuity, unbroken process (in action, in

feeling, in thought...)
Disconnected: detailed analysis
Overconnected: intuitive logic

11.Clarity and precision in reality perception: form and

accuracy

Graphological signs concerned:

Clear: clearness in learning and communication

Neat: precision and distinction in self high opinion
Accurate: carefulness, accuracy, precision in outward
appearance
Elegant: perspective art
Levigate: affected propriety, pretentious correctness
Dark: darkness in thought and action
Confused: confusion, bewilderment
Negligent: carelessness
Essential: sobriety, terseness
Tangled: nebulosity, indistinct superimposition

12.Fugitive gesture: flourishes

Graphological signs concerned:

Flourishes of Boldness: boldness

Flourishes of Confusion: confusion
Flourishes of Flattery: hypocrisy
Flourishes of Hiding: careful concealment of the self
Flourishes of Mythomania: fixed ideas, misinterpretation
Flourishes of Phlegm: phlegm in thought and action
Flourishes of Sobriety: sobriety, terseness
Flourishes of Subjectivism: attachment to the self, cold
attractive art
CURVED
The CURVED graphological sign is the sign of sentiment's extroversion, in
that it indicates 'social and socialised tendency'. It is a indication of
sentiment that needs to express itself and is capable of compassion; it
indicates the ability to accept and adapt. It transmits the tendency to
selflessness, intended as the impulse to satisfy the aspirations, demands
and desires of others, if it has the ability to remove obstacles. Otherwise it
transforms into mere surrender, impersonal adaptability and
disengagement, through Self's lack of precise aspirations to develop and
satisfy.
An excessive graphical roundness, therefore, indicates a predominance of
the adaptive nature, that brings with it the disregard of Self's rights through
inaction, by 'indolence, which Moretti defines as "nothing more than
egoism characterised by not wanting to inconvenience itself to sort things
out" and therefore lets things go their own way. For these reasons the
above average curve injures, not only justifiable resentment, but also
sensibility, independence, psychological comprehension and the ability of
observation.

On a graphic level the Curve requires not only a rounded line, but one
without markings in that any sign of breaks or slowing down, including
those due for example to accuracy, decreases the degree of the Curve. It
is precisely this qualification that makes it a sign that is anything but easy
to measure for amateurs, who must wait, before giving an opinion
concerning it, to know all the other graphological signs that can support or
oppose the Curve in some way.
In fact not all Curved writings are writings of selflessness or surrender and
this is because signs of preventative defence other than the angle exist,
and it is extremely important for the graphologist, in order to arrive at a
correct valuation of the altruistic/egoistic movement, to know how to
recognise them.

The psychological significance of the Curve sign, consequently, becomes

the result of the following lines of study:

1. the measurement of the roundness of the line, which turns out to

be inversely proportional to the quantity of angles, markings and
breaks of various nature present in the handwriting;
 2. the evaluation of the specific contribution given by all the other
signs present in the handwriting, that can support the altruistic
movement of openness (e.g. Sinuous, Rushing, Right extensions...)
or obstruct it in that they belong to the psychological significance of
care and defence of Self (e.g. Pondered, Stable on the line, Straight
Extensions...)

Fig. 3 - Altruistic movement (Curved) obstructed by other signs (Accurate,

Heavy, Backward slant)

Fig. 4 - Altruistic movement (Curved) strengthened by other signs (Large

spacing between letters, Rushing)

As Moretti says, "The true Curve, psychologically speaking, does not exist
and one can graphologically disregard it... We assign the Curve sign and
we consider it graphologically to facilitate the evolution or the practical
application of Graphology, in that we, by fixing the opposites, although one
of them does not in reality occur, understand things better. And that
precisely because, in this way, we consider them in their dynamic part and
not in their simple static position." (Moretti, 1972, p. 59)
In order to adequately understand the Curve sign, therefore, it is
necessary to introduce its opposite extreme, the

ANGULAR

The angle requires an abrupt change of direction, or rather it requires the

subject to always have a prompt responsiveness, the subject has the
means to develop its own personality keeping it distinct from others. The
angularity, in this sense, is an indication of introversion in that it protects
the properties of the Self. Its actions are actions of personal defence.
The angle constitutes, moreover, a coefficient of the impulse to act and
awakens intellectual activity, in the shape of attention and sensibility,
thanks to the incitement (A Angles) that sparks the reaction and thanks to
the resistance (B Angles) that does not give in and has the ability to self-
command in order not to give way under difficulties.

Fig. 5 - A Angles and B Angles

The angles are necessary for any action that requires a constant and
long struggle, but they can obstruct the lucidity of conscience and
express itself in a fight for the triumph of Self, even against reason.
The angle, moreover, increases the attention and therefore the
perception of each little sentiment, it favours introspection and makes
thought more distinct and refined. On this point Moretti writes: "The Angle
is the sign of selfishness, but at the same time it is the sign of the
impulse to fight with ourselves and with others, an impulse that for its
very nature cannot help but be fully conscious in that it involves all the
attention and the intentions of the Self. We can say that the Angle leads
Self not to a dead end as can happen with the Curve sign, but it throws it
in the middle of the calm or stormy waves of an immense sea so that it
realises all that springs from or can spring from the calm or the storm...
So that the Self is forced to measure, weigh and consider its
responsibilities towards itself and towards others..." (Moretti, 1955, p. 88)

In its analogical significance, the Angle requires an interruption of the

movement, a pause, followed by the resumption of the graphic, and each
break, psychologically speaking, prepares the stance, therefore it is the
opposite of the Curve sign. Saudek also observes that the Angle is
preferred by people who do not seek decisive compromises, but prefer
the conflict with difficulties.
Moretti distinguishes two types of angles, that is two distinct forms of
direct defence of Self:

• the reaction against each attack perceived as directed to Self

(A Angles);

• the resistance in attachment in order not to be deprived of what

the Self cares about (B Angles).

A ANGLES
These are an indication of active intangibility of Self. The Self, when
attacked, feels grievance and in resentment it reacts. In itself the
disposition to resentment is a form of "fragility of the soul that is made
sensitive regarding its own defects through the observations of others"
(Moretti, 1972, p. 72), but all this depends on the degree with which the
sign materialises. When the sign is constituted for the most part by sharp
angles the resentment becomes so accentuated that it expresses itself in a
state of irritability constantly waiting to find a pretext to show itself.
Fig. 6 - A Angles

On the analogical level the reaction presupposes a disposition of the

personality to stop and raise itself in order to defend itself against
aggressions. The more sharp are the stopping and the raising, the more
sharp will be the angle and the reaction strong. In the most pronounced
degrees Moretti speaks of attacks against whosoever attempts to debase
the integrity of the Self, arriving at direct forms of aggressiveness.
The sign of reaction (also defined as resentment or touchiness, according
to the degree) can be found at the foot of the lower case 'a' on the left side,
and takes the name of 'A Angles'