Handwriting and Homeopathy

Review

This book review is reprinted from the Spring 2006 edition of The Homoeopath with permission from Nick Churchill Of The Society Of Homoeopaths.

Reviewed By Francis Treuherz

This has been a difficult book to review. It is a fine attempt by dedicated and inspired homeopaths to discern the value of an assessment of a sample of a patient's handwriting, to confirm (and possibly identify) the patient's remedy. Welte and colleagues have built on the work of the late Hugbald Milller and their own work to create an archive of well over 2000 samples of handwriting. From this they have chosen some 750 extracts illustrative of 315 remedies. The main body of the book comprises the reproductions of handwriting. There is a brief 17 -page introduction, and an index related to the recent publications on homeopathy and colours, which I reviewed in 2004. The handwriting itself is accompanied on each page by a summary of the case, and reasons for relating this sample to the remedy. The remedies are not only polychrests but also little-used remedies; this research may help us learn more about small remedies. There is no doubt that handwriting in many ways represents an artistic expression of character, the only question is how can we use it to assess character and remedy. Welte suggests we routinely ask a patient for a sample, and use it alongside the resources from this book.

I grew up with graphology, the science of handwriting. It was one of my father's passions. He had studied with many authorities in this field in the late 1920s and 1930s in Germany and London. He especially liked the work of Robert Saudek, one of the leaders in this field and I read much of the literature when I was younger. You can read more about it at www.britishgraphology.org. I even have a book called Paragnose, Erkennung van Krankheiten aus der Handschrift (Understanding Illness from Handwriting) by Adolf Simon, Berlin 1930, which attempts to relate these diagnoses and handwriting to homeopathic remedy typology, especially the tissue salts. Welte claims his book is the first in this field but not so. There is also Les Correspondances Graphologiques en Homeopathie by Jean Rivere, Paris 1973 and 2003.

Graphologists are as much or as little accepted in the world as homeopaths, and also have professional associations and training. Just as we are regarded as medical outsiders there are some who consider graphologists as little more than fortune-tellers. Yet they seriously look at many aspects of handwriting to discover character, such as size - relative and zoning, connection, disconnection and continuity, forms of connection; spacing of letters, words and lines; layout, margins, punctuation; slant, gradient and direction of lines; fullness and leanness; simplification; direct and roundabout writing; and, most important, indications of speed and pressure. Some claim that neither gender nor age can be discerned from handwriting. None of this methodology is discussed here.

This book introduces us to another specialist way of taking the case from writing but without training us in the techniques for using the information. The reproductions of handwriting are there but we do not have the tools to understand how and why the analysis was made to relate the writing to the remedy.

And most if not all the samples are in German with which many will be unfamiliar.

Yet there is something appealing in the idea that we can see into our patients' illness through their outward expressions of writing. This book gives ample opportunity for us to start on this, and I wonder if there are people in English-speaking countries who could collaborate with Welte on a systematic collection of samples and relate this to cured cases and remedies. I was surprised that I found this more difficult than the colors book, as the idea seems sound. Go for it, I say, those of you with younger and more adventurous minds.

This book review is reprinted with permission from Volume 18, Winter 2005 Edition of Homeopathic Links.

Reviewed by Markus Kuntosch, Germany

This is one of the most interesting and exciting books I've ever read about homeopathy. As homeopaths we are always looking for "rare, strange, peculiar and characteristic symptoms", Isn't it then obvious to take also the handwriting of a patient into consideration when analysing the case?

Hugbald Volker Milller (1921-2000), a homeopath from Cologne, followed this idea further through collecting the favourite colours and handwritings of those patients who responded well to a single remedy. He recognized that those patients who were cured by the same homeopathic remedy not only shared the same colour preference but often had astonishingly similar handwriting. Ulrich Welte, the author of this book, closely collaborated with Muller in his last years. For the first time he makes this treasure of experience available to the homeopathic community.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part (18 pages) gives a general introduction into the method and significance of the handwriting as a homeopathic symptom. The second part (311 pages) is the main part and gives a compilation of 315 remedies with 750 corresponding handwritings in the original size. For most remedies you'll find two or more handwritings, together with the remedy abbreviations and the colour codes according to the 'cookbook' of the same author (Colours in Homeopathy). Beside the polychrests, as for example Nux vomica, Sepia or Pulsatilla, you will especially find handwritings of so-called "small remedies" like Aqua marina, Bismuthum oxide, Crocus sativa, Erbium, Lithium muriaticum, Rhodium.

What I liked most are the numerous cases, mostly with long-term follow-ups. Though they are deliberately kept short, they are replete with different strategies of analysis, for example the group analysis of Scholten, themes of plant families or essences of homeopathic remedies. This synthesis of old and new experiences in homeopathy makes this book unique. The author gives many pearls of his practical experience of more than 30 years, which have never been published before [for example the simuroubaceae family (Ailanthus, Cedron etc.) as possible remedies for compulsive disorders or Cornus circinatus for pseudarthrosis]. The book can be thought of as primarily a reference work. After the anamnesis you could easily compare the handwriting of your patient with the samples of remedies of your case analysis.

The third part contains a kind of colour repertory in the form of a schema, as well as portraits of H.V. Muller, the authors and his colleagues who also practise this method.

I have been using the colour preference and the handwriting for six years and I often use remedies suggested by the colour preference - remedies I otherwise wouldn't have thought of. In my first years of practising with the classical repertorisation I also had a few deeply reacting cases. After including colour preference and handwriting, the number of really good cases had substantially increased. Every homeopath is invited to form how own opinion by comparing some of the handwritings of his best cases (for example- letters) with the handwritings in this book. I'm sure that many of you will be surprised by the results.