Without knowledge of evaluated traits Eddie would have falsely assumed that he had conquered sensitiveness while in reality, the insidious fear would have continued to fester inside. He started a program of global grapho-therapy exercises and in due time changed his overall writing in a more positive way. The students, on the other hand, had learned a memorable lesson, namely, that hidden characteristics in handwriting can be evaluated through a combination of basic traits. Most handwriting analysts are familiar with basic traits. One letter or stroke symbolizes a certain characteristic.
Basic traits go back a long time.
More than hundred years ago, the French Abbe Jean Hypolyte Michon tried to establish a reliable system of handwriting analysis. He collected thousands of writings and interpreted minute details. Although he depended on empirical observation alone, he was quite successful in his work and at the time of his death in 1881, his signes fixes numbered in hundreds. He surmised that secondary characteristics can be evaluated through combinations of primary traits. Cr pieux-Jamin called these evaluated traits resultants .