ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Obsolete scripts and dated readings: The decline of graphology in late 20th-century Sweden

• In Event: How Sciences End 2

English Abstract

In mid 20th-century Sweden, several scientists sought to position graphology—the study of the relationship between the individual and their handwriting—within the emerging field of psychology. Graphological analysis was presented as a method for accessing a person’s true nature by understanding handwriting as a graphically fixed manifestation of the unconscious, expressed through the bodily movements involved in the act of writing.
Swedish graphology drew inspiration from German traditions rooted in neo-vitalist and conservative contexts. But when graphology was introduced as a psychological tool in post-war Sweden—particularly in the labour market and education system—it was adapted to the epistemological terrain of the welfare state. This transformation affected its theoretical foundations, applications, and the kinds of knowledge it produced about the individual. Thus, graphology both aligned with and challenged prevailing ideas about human nature.
Throughout the century, graphology remained the subject of continuous negotiations regarding its scientific legitimacy and practical utility in modern society. By the end of the century, it had largely been discredited and classified as a pseudoscience. This process can be attributed to processes of deinstitutionalisation as well as paradigm shifts within psychology, particularly the rise of cognitive psychology, whose explanatory models left little room for the psychological frameworks that once was used to legitimise graphology. The epistemic logics underpinning graphology, its conceptualisation of the individual, the understanding of handwriting it suggested were gradually rendered obsolete. The decline of scientific graphology thus illuminates broader scientific, political, and cultural paradigm shifts, and highlights the struggle over the human subject in modernity. Nevertheless, while the scientific status of graphology diminished, its practices and principles persisted in other contexts.

Author

• Rakel Gunnemark, University of Gothenburg