Handwriting Sample: Jaycee Dugard

JAYCEE DUGARD – Remarkable coping skills

This script is taken from Jaycee Dugard’s memoir called “A Stolen Life”. Jaycee was kidnapped at age 11 while waking to a bus near her house by Phil and Nancy Garrido. She was held for 18 years in a suburb of the San Francisco Bay area and had two daughters with Garrido, and was forced to be a ‘sister’ to her daughters.

This writing sample is from a journal she wrote about a kitten she was given (which was subsequently ‘gotten rid of’ because it interfered with Garrido’s fantasy. At the time of this writing, Jaycee had been held for two years. She had been raped repeatedly and threatened, and saw no one but Philip and Nancy Garrido, and was not allowed out of the room where she was kept.

This was (and is) a remarkable girl in relation to the coping skills in her script. Her vertical slant helped her maintain an objective, pulled-back outward demeanour during those traumatized and terrified years.

Her wide word spacing helped her keep what was happening to her at arm’s length, and helped her emotionally distance herself from what was going on. This script appears to be fairly heavy in relation to pen pressure, which would have given her enormous energy reserves to show resilience under stress.

The dominant lower-case letter area throughout her script helped her focus on the day-to-day, minute by minute which I’m sure helped her find even small things in her environment to feel appreciation for that helped her to hold on and focus on keeping herself as whole and as safe as possible.

Her rounded m’s and n’s also helped Jaycee focus on whatever matter was at hand and take things one minute, one day, and one circumstance at a time. The carefully retraced mid-portion of these letters helped her repress her emotions so that she could make sure she was ‘good’ and didn’t anger her captors.

The heart doodles that appear within her script and at the bottom of each page reflect her hope; hearts are ‘romantic’ doodles. The string at the end of her heart-shaped doodles at the end of her page may well have been symbolic of hope and love feelings reaching out to her ‘future’ (the string on the heart moves toward the right). In some of her heart doodles, the string is more vertical, suggesting she was elevating her sense of love and hope above what was happening to her each and every day.

Be sure to view my 5-minute “Power of the Pen” DVD on my Home Page at www.handwritinganalysistoronto.com

Celebrity Handwriting: Elizabeth Taylor

Your handwriting is the ‘paper mirror’ of your personality, unconsciously broadcasting all kinds of secrets about you to others. The text of your writing indicates your private self. Your signature represents the face you show the world.

In the strokes of your signature, you have developed a ‘trademark’; whether it’s legible or illegible, has flair strokes or is unadorned, it is the ‘face’ you have chosen to wear and show to the world. Its direction, size, style and position on the page all shriek to others the needs of your ego, and reflects how you want others to see you. Many celebrities and regular folk style their signature to project publicly how they wish others to perceive them.

Some celebrity signatures reveal a wealth of information about them. Elizabeth Taylor’s signature is certainly a treasure trove of positive qualities.

Despite having many physical illnesses and personal ups and downs throughout her life, Elizabeth’s signature still moves upward on her page, denoting sustained optimism. The tie-loop in the ‘t’ of her first name represents her persistence: It’s fair to say that having had eight husbands, persistence would be a necessary attribute!

The pronounced flip-up stroke after her first name, where the stroke rises dramatically above the tops of her lower-case letters, we have a ‘need for attention’ stroke. This stroke alone signals Elizabeth’s craving for attention, excitement and need to seek out the limelight. Her desire to be loved, valued and respected motivated her to move out to be with others and attract applause.

The subliminal figure-8 stroke formed between the ‘y’ and ‘l’ of ‘Taylor’ indicates her ability to communicate smoothly and to smooth over troubling situations verbally and in writing. The needle-pointed ‘r’ in her family name indicates sharp mental perceptions.

Now we come to the ‘lower zone’, or lower loops, representing our physical needs (food, sex, wishes/desires on the physical level). You’ll notice that Elizabeth’s lower zone is full and active, very much like her very colourful and rich love life, her wealth of memories and past experience, and very appropriately portraying this ‘active lower zone’ in her eight marriages. Elizabeth’s wide lower zone loops are typical of a physical, sensual person who appreciates enjoyment, pleasure, and the material things that money can buy.

If the lower loops represent a composite of past experience, ideas we wish to treasure, and physical experiences, Elizabeth Taylor was a wealthy woman, and the wealth I’m referring to has nothing to do money.

Be sure to view my 5-minute “Power of the Pen” DVD on my Home Page at www.handwritinganalysistoronto.com