Handwriting, Inferiority and Race: Graphopathology from Its Beginnings to the Time of National Socialism Handschrift, Minderwertigkeit und Rasse: Die Schriftpathologie von Ihren Anfängen Bis Zur Zeit Des Nationalsozialismus

Abstract

Towards the end of the nineteenth century handwritings became a new epistemic object of medicine. First within the psychiatry and then within the forensic and general medicine there have been various attempts to establish the graphology as a credible diagnostic method. Finally, during the years of National Socialism attempts were made, to use handwritings for the purposes of racial hygienic selection. By using various sources, the paper explores specific interrelationships between medical and graphological discourse, showing how handwritings were instrumentalized for political purposes.