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PERSONALITY PROFILE
Prepared for Dorothy Butler based on her Grandmother Tressie Bruggeman’s Handwriting
This analysis is based on several writing samples; two from the backs of two photographs, and 20 pages
excerpted from Grandmother Tressie’s daily date book dated from January 1936 through November 1936. It
is based on JPG scans and I do not have the original documents.
The first thing that I notice about Tressie’s writing is the slant. The slant of one’s writing shows how one goes
about making decisions – logic (vertical) versus emotion (rightward slanted). The more rightward the slant, the
more emotion goes into one’s decision making. Tressie’s slant varies dramatically from reclined, to nearly
vertical to very inclined throughout her diary entries.
Sometimes she used a lot of emotion to make decisions, and sometimes she was more logical. This type of
variable slant shows someone who is emotionally unstable, constantly changing directions, and lacking self-
control. One minute she could be warm and affectionate, and the next minute, cool and aloof. She was most
likely difficult to understand and could be hard to get along with – her family and friends probably never really
knew what to expect.
The baseline of the writing gives a snapshot of your Grandmother’s mood levels and attitude about life at the
time of her writing. Much like her slant, I find the baselines to be variable. On the back of one of the
photographs (“Clifford in front of me & Mercer back…”), there is a mix of ascending, straight and descending.
This shows a fluctuation of mental, emotion and physical feelings when she was writing this. The daily
calendar diary that she kept had pre-printed lines and often words dip below the lines.
At those times, she was most likely feeling negative, disappointed, disillusioned, or depressed.

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Though I don’t have the original, the JPG seems to show a pen pressure that is also variable in lightness and
darkness.
This shows her energy was coming and going – this is a sign of worry and nervousness – it is compatible with
an uneven slant and baseline.
The zones of her writing show the lower zone having some dominance.
The lower zone represents the physical and material aspects of life. Since the lower zone is more dominant, it
shows that she needed variety and change in her life, that she had a strong personality, enjoyed bright colors,
and had a strong need for monetary security. Your grandmother was very restless and desired change in her
life. Her writing is medium size most of the time, which shows that she tried to balance, to the best of her
ability her personality and character traits that she possessed. At times it got quite small and illegible (see
sample above for variations in size), and at other times it was larger. The variability reflects how she was
feeling about herself at the time of her writing. When her writing was large, she was feeling good about
herself, and when her writing became small and difficult to read, she was not at her best. She was a fast
writer, which is indicative of a quick mind. Also, she probably didn’t have a lot of time with all of the chores
that needed doing, so I imagine that these daily notes were quickly dashed off. In the entry on November 30th
,
she emphasizes, by underline, that she was “over to Benson a minute”, as if she might feel guilty for spending
that much time.
One aspect of handwriting that we look at is called the connecting strokes. In general, Tressie made rounded
garland connections, which indicate that she was friendly, open, and sociable. She also had angularity in her
connecting strokes and in certain letters, which indicate that she had a sharp, keen and analytical mind.
However, there is something very interesting about your Grandmother Tressie’s writing found in these daily
date book entries. She had a type of connection in her m, n, u, v and w called a “sham garland”.

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If you were to look at those letters by themselves, it would be difficult to tell what those letters are – is this an
“n” or a “m” or a “w” or a “u” – we can only tell because of the context of the word and surrounding letters.
This type of writer can be manipulative and has the ability to make us believe that they have our best interests
at heart when actually, the reverse is true. In addition, she also had what are called “arcade” connectors
(transition from the “o” to the “t” above). This type of writer can be pretentious and controlling and a have a
more formal approach to life.
We see variability once again with Grandma Tressie in her lead-in strokes and ending strokes. Sometimes she
follows the conventions that she was taught indicating adherence to tradition, and sometimes she eliminates
those strokes in favor of quick and efficient handwriting, showing her to be practical and self-sufficient. She
has ascending finals on her letters, particularly the letters m, n and r.
This shows someone who is ambitious, wants to do good work, has high moral standards, and strong opinions.
In fact, many times we see that her ending strokes end below the baseline – this is indicative of someone with
strong likes and dislikes, who can be intolerant of others and is feeling frustration and anger
.
There is often tangling of letters within the lines, and variability of spacing between words.
When this is in one’s writing we know that the person had some confusion, where one thought overlaps with
the next and that they have too many irons in the fire. Though she was very bright, she had many things going
on in her mind at one time and had difficulty having a clear and organized thought process.

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The margins that Tressie established were also variable, often weaving in and out on the left and very
cramped on the right. Grandma Tressie fought against society’s boundaries, and could be very impulsive with
little preplanning. There is a high probability that she was prone to accidents.
Some of Tressie’s capital letters contain small curlicues thus indicating that she could be vain, and possessed a
jealous nature.
This is supported also by the formation of her capital letter “M” – showing a great deal of personal pride and
social ambition. However, her capital letters also point to her desire for efficiency as she most often created
connections between her capitals and the rest of the word. There is also evidence in the capital letters that
she was responsible, but recognition for her efforts was important to her.
Tressie’s personal pronoun “I” is most often reclined when the rest of her writing is inclined to various
degrees.
(also see first example on page 1) This indicates that she felt repressed and held her deepest feelings
about herself back from others. Her mother and father were not aligned with one another. The placement of
the “i” dot in her lower case “i” shows that she had a great imagination. We also see impatience, and at times,
sarcasm in that dot. Both of these traits are supported by the letter “t” which I will discuss next.

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The lower case letter “t” is the goal setting letter and reveals a lot about Tressie. She crossed her “t’s” high
with a very long crossing showing that she set high goals and was very ambitious, had a strong work ethic and
a lot of endurance. The shape of the crossing was very often like a sharp rapier and Grandma Tressie could use
her words to wound – much like that sword. With that, she also had a sharp wit.
Often we see the “t” crossing flying off to the right of the stem, indicating impatience, impulsiveness and
frustration. So much to do, and not enough time.
In more than one place, the “t” crossing descends from left to right – a sign of someone who could be
argumentative, demanding and at times, cruel.
In addition, the “t” crossing crashes through the “h” in a “th” combination on more than one occasion (see
above example). This tells us that she was questioning her belief system at that time. The “th” combo also tells
us that Tressie had no social prejudices and got along with all types of people.
The trizonal lower case letter “f” tells us about your Grandmother’s productivity. From a work perspective, she
was involved in many different activities and she was not taking the time to pre-plan, and in fact felt quite
squeezed with all she had to do.
However, she was very productive, but probably wondered where her day went to. Her lower zones show that
she had endurance, energy and follow through.
Her letter “d” had a short stem, which shows the ability to be a good leader, but was very looped, which
indicates someone who can be highly sensitive to criticism.

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She had the ability to be an engaged, active listener, but her mind worked so quickly that sometimes it was
hard for her to slow down long enough to actively listen.
Her middle zone ovals, which tell us about the day-to-day, here and now, shows her to be honest and
straightforward with others. Her oval letters were often left open, which means she was talkative and because
of her impulsiveness she would often speak before thinking.
She could be a bit of a gossip, and probably was not good at keeping secrets.
Her letter “k” tells us that she had a healthy respect for men, and it also tells us one more thing. The “k” is
most always written much larger than the surrounding letters – this type of “k” is called the “go to heck k” and
is a sign of someone who is resentful at being told what to do.
The shape of her lower case “r” shows that she lacked manual and mechanical abilities. She could probably tell
someone how to fix the tractor, but most likely wasn’t going to fix it herself.
The letter “h” points to her love of reading, and her retentive mind. She used her imagination, was a creative
problem solver, and had a strong and enthusiastic spirit.
Tressie had a healthy conscience, and was aware of things happening in the world. During this 1936 time
period, she was experiencing a lot of emotional tension and worry.
It seems to me that your Grandmother Tressie was not content with her life as a farmer’s wife. She had a lot of
determination, and was very bright with excellent analytical skills. I suspect she was a woman before her time
in 1936 and her gifts were underutilized which made her angry, and frustrated much of the time. She craved
something more than the simple farm life could offer her. I see rebellion, impulsiveness and a desire to break
out from the constraints placed upon her during that time, and evidence of a longing for something in the
past.
Dorothy, thank you for giving me this opportunity to learn about your grandmother. If you have any questions,
give me a call at 805-458-2690. I always welcome feedback and questions.