THE INSTITUTE OF GRAPHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

The Institute of Graphological Sciences

-management, sponsorship and quality control of graphological studies-

INTRODUCTION

The Institute of Graphological Sciences was set up by coordinators of the UAB’s Escuela de Práctica Jurídica (School of Legal Practice) when the study programmes in Forensic Handwriting Analysis and in Psychological Analysis of Handwriting were expanded. It is responsible for organising the study programme's projects, which were approved by the Academic Advisory Board of the UAB’s Escuela de Doctorado y Formación Continuada (School of Doctorate Studies and Continuing Education), now known as the Graduate School.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences helps organise the university study programmes and subsidises some of the expenses involved. Beyond that, it controls the quality of the training offered via a committee lead by professors Francisco Viñals Carrera, María Luz Puente Balsells and Josep Llobet Aguado, in which lecturers from the programmes take part.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences has close ties with and is supervised by the Spanish Institutional Board of Professors and Directors of Forensic-Sciences Laboratories and the Coordinació de Criminalistes i Pèrits Judicials de les Escoles de Pràctica Jurídica, Doctorat I Postgrau de Catalunya (Coordinating Committee of Criminalists and Judicial Expert Analysts of the Schools for Forensic, Doctorate and Graduate Studies of Catalonia). Coordinator: Prof. J. Verdaguer.

NEWSLETTER

Under the supervision of Prof. María Luz Puente, the Institute of Graphological Sciences (together with the Coordinating Committee of Studies in Forensic Handwriting Analysis, Psychological Analysis of Handwriting and Criminalistics at the UAB) sponsors and directs the Newsletter, created to support lecturers of said subjects in the third cycle of studies at the UAB. The Newsletter is also destined for members of organisations tied to, working with, or receiving sponsorship from the Institute of Graphological Sciences. Coordinator: Prof. J. García.

EXTERNAL AGREEMENTS ON TRAINING AND RETRAINING

The Institute of Graphological Sciences has agreements with other public and private organisations, such as the Dirección General de Policía-Comisaría General Técnica de la Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan regional government’s police corps), regulating collaboration with the Mossos d'Esquadra police force in the Master's programme in Criminalistics, EPSI-UAB. The ICG sponsors seminars, such as the one on Civil and Military Intelligence, or the Scientific Police Seminar with the Association of Graduates and Professionals in Criminology and Investigation, or the one on graphology with the Spanish Association of Consultant Graphologists (which, like the Associació Professional de Perits Cal·lígrafs de Catalunya, is sponsored by the ICG). Among these agreements must be mentioned Prof. Francisco Viñals Carrera and Prof. Juan Palma’s collaboration with CECA, both in drawing up training plans as wells as in solving cases using graphological techniques applied to criminology.

AGREEMENTS FOR DISCOUNTS

Beyond the training agreements already mentioned, the Institute of Graphological Sciences has signed an agreement with ALIBRI bookstore (c/ Balmes 26, 08007 Barcelona) so that the greatest discounts permitted by law may be offered to students from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona who are pursuing: the Master’s Degree in Graphistics, Graphopathology and Forensic Graphology; the Master’s Degree in Document Examination and Judicial Analysis of Patents and Trademarks; the Master’s Degree in Criminalistics: Director of Forensic Sciences; the postgraduate degrees in Forensic Handwriting Analysis, Graphistics, Document Examination and Forensic Sociolinguistics, in Psychological Analysis of Handwriting, in Judicial Analysis of Intellectual and Industrial Property, and in Criminalistics: Analysis of Information and Advanced Techniques in Forensic Sciences. This discount is also valid for members of the AGC of Spain and for members of the Associació Professional de Perits Cal·lígrafs de Catalunya. Likewise, at the stationer’s and office goods shop Helios (c/ Consell de Cent, 261, Barcelona), there is a discount of 10% on office stationery, 8% on IT supplies and 5% on gift items. And at the computer shop TRAXTORE (c/ Sepúlveda, 125, 08001 Barcelona), these same individuals can receive a 5% discount on all purchases.

AUGUSTO VELS LABORATORY

In April 2001, the Institute of Graphological Sciences opened a department called the Augusto Vels Laboratory, which subsidises, verifies, updates and promotes the research begun by Professor Vels; this work is done in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Consultant Graphologists (the AGC of Spain), the association Professor Vels founded. The laboratory, directed by Professor María Luz Puente who is assisted by María Dolores Mora Domingo, obtained permission from Professor Vels’s family to exhibit his unpublished book Dibujo y Personalidad publicly and freely. The book may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial and non-profit use only from the following legally authorised web pages: www.grafoanalisis.com and www.grafologiauniversitaria.com. Any unauthorised use or commercialisation of this book (or of any other works protected by the Institute of Graphological Sciences) which is detected on the internet or in any other media subject to intellectual property laws will be reported to the legal office of the AGC and to the aforementioned heirs’ lawyers.

The Augusto Vels Laboratory also watches over the reputation of Professor Vels, the creator of the Spanish School of Graphology; to this end, the Laboratory, together with the AGC of Spain, maintains close ties with the Augusto Vels Library belonging to the town council of Puerto Lumbreras (Murcia), where Professor Vels was born. The town has named him honorary citizen and has named a street after him as well. The ICG-AGC of Spain often sends books and reports to the library in the hopes of contributing to the professor’s legacy, an element of cultural heritage that is available to the public at the express wish of the Institute of Graphological Sciences -AGC of Spain. A committee of the Institute of Graphological Sciences -AGC was set up within the Augusto Vels Laboratory for the express purpose of gathering all information that appears about the life and work of Augusto Vels.

Our institution is the only one with the right to use the name “Augusto Vels”, a right which was bestowed by Prof. Vels himself and his family. A few years ago, the AGC of Spain had authorised an Argentinean study centre to use the name as well, but that permission was withdrawn in 2006 when it was learned that that centre was working with harmful theories, ones which are in complete opposition to Prof. Vels’s epistemology and professional ethics; this was seen in their naming honorary members certain individuals who head sectarian philosophical systems similar to quackery (condemned by medical associations), esotericism and fortune telling. Augusto Vels was not only the founder of the Spanish School of Graphology, he was also an indefatigable defender of the scientific method and of the professional code of ethics; in 1984, he withdrew from an association that he had originally supported, upon learning that the board of directors were leaning towards including graphology within the occult sciences. He rejected and publicly denounced that association when Ms Rosa Torrents Botey was president, a professional fortune teller, contributor to Karma-7 magazine, and guest speaker at many occult events and meetings.

THE Institute of Graphological Sciences -AGC COMMITTEE FOR GRAPHOANALYSIS QUALITY SUPERVISION

At times, training centres have summoned the ICG-AGC joint committee in order to guarantee quality in programmes and methods for graphoanalytical training. In other cases, representatives or correspondents of AGC might be temporarily designated to gather data for supervising and evaluating the suitability of centres and organisations that have requested assistance from or wish to work with the AGC. Once the data have been assessed, the committee either expresses its support or, in the worst case scenario, when there is not sufficient clarity, makes no declaration at all. The proposal is then either rejected or the applicant is invited to rectify the unclear or insufficient points. Once an organisation or project has gained the guaranteed-quality status offered by the ICG or the AGC, there is a process of ongoing assessment. If an organisation fails to offer timely and satisfactory answers to the questions involved in this ongoing-assessment process, their status may be lost. Neither the ICG nor the AGC have ever received monetary compensation for this support offered – on the contrary, it is the ICG who pays the expenses involved.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences and the AGC have also supported associations and organisations in offering training in Viñals and Puente's Transactional Graphoanalysis: for example, the Brazilian Graphology Society (SOBRAG) organised a course based on professors Viñals and Puente’s book, Psychodiagnostic Assessment via Handwriting: Transactional Graphoanalysis.

THE Institute of Graphological Sciences -APPCC COMMITTEE FOR QUALITY SUPERVISION IN FORENSIC HANDWRITING ANALYSIS

Here the ICG works with the Associació Professional de Perits Cal·lígrafs de Catalunya (the Catalan Association of Professional Handwriting Analysts) in controlling the quality of the work done by expert witnesses, whether they work in the public or private sector, done by gathering information sent by lawyers and solicitors. The committee’s purpose is to attest to the good work done by expert analysts or, if the case may be, make it known that a report is to be considered suspect or is simply at an unacceptable level. These cases are always studied at great length so that the committee is able to offer guidance as colleagues. Moreover, the ICG, through professors Viñals and Puente, sponsors an important part of the Association’s expenses as well as the assessment of expert reports when they have been challenged.

RESEARCH

The Institute of Graphological Sciences sponsors part of the training together with the Coordinating Committee of Studies in Forensic Handwriting Analysis, Psychological Analysis of Handwriting and Criminalistics (currently part of the Master's programmes at the UAB); it also offers economic assistance to lecturers carrying out research on graphological science.

One of the projects that received assistance was Prof. Tous’s research on the PMK-R test which he developed based on Dr. Emilio Mira y López’s PMK, with the invaluable assistance of students from the courses on Forensic Handwriting Analysis and Psychological Analysis of Handwriting.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences Research Group and the Coordinating Committee of Studies in Psychological Analysis of Handwriting have carried out work on the ongoing assessments of Dr. Francisco Viñals Carrera’s graphological lie detector and have confirmed the initial findings. These assessments were carried out by Patricia Sarria and other colleagues from Cordoba and Madrid, such as Prof. Juan Palma. Professor Viñals has applied this test in real-life situations more than 200 times, to groups of between three and forty people, always less than two weeks after the crime had been committed, with the express consent of the individuals being tested, and using texts drafted and delivered by Prof. Viñals himself. In close to ninety percent of the cases, the author of the crime was discovered, and in the remaining ten percent of cases, it is possible that the author of the crime was not present in the group, as the directors themselves testified.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences is also in charge of the ongoing assessments of Viñals and Puente’s Transactional Graphoanalysis, done with the aid of the Research Group of the Coordinating Committee of Studies in Psychological Analysis of Handwriting at the UAB. Special assistance was offered by Paloma Martínez and Manuel Calahorra, who prepared an IT version of this method.

Likewise, the Institute of Graphological Sciences proposed and participated in the market study carried out together with the AGC of Spain to know what percentage of human-resources departments use graphology when hiring staff.

Of special importance to the Institute of Graphological Sciences was the statistical study carried out with all classes of students to determine the reliability in perceiving and identifying graphic samples. This study was done with students in the specialisations in Forensic Handwriting Analysis, the Psychological Analysis of Handwriting and Criminalistics at the UAB as a way of testing latent or intuitive ability and sequential development in learning to perceive elements that allow for the identification of graphisms, thus consolidating the suitability of the practical training offered by those programmes.

PUBLICATIONS

Prof. Augusto Vels’s unpublished book has already been mentioned. It can be found at the AGC's website as well as the website of the Coordinating Committee of Studies in Forensic Handwriting Analysis, Psychological Analysis of Handwriting and Criminalistics at the UAB. The Institute of Graphological Sciences, through its directors, also assists in the publication of the AGC of Spain’s yearbook. Moreover, it helps lecturers working in organisations supported by the Institute of Graphological Sciences to disseminate their studies and writings.

The Institute of Graphological Sciences, through professors Viñals and Puente, has had a leading role in publishing both authors’ books, in which reference it explicitly made to the institution, just as it is in volume XII of the Història Contemporània de Catalunya, in which Prof. Viñals is included among “Personatges de Catalunya (Important Catalans)” due to being a graphologist, director of the Institute of Graphological Sciences and president of the AGC of Spain.

Institute of Graphological Sciences, in contributing to Catalan culture, helped in publishing l’Escultor Joan Carrera Dellunder, under the guidance of Professor Puente, who has been an important university professor of Catalan history.

DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION

The media and public-relations committee of the Institute of Graphological Sciences and related organisations gathers information related to graphological science and criminalistics. If the information is considered to be of professional or pedagogical interest (keeping in mind the non-profit aim of the organisation and its criteria concerning quality, ethics and professionalism), it will be included and disseminated.

INTERNATIONAL DEONTOLOGY COMMITTEE OF GRAPHOLOGY

The Institute of Graphological Sciences is the only institution currently working to monitor and make public that which might harm professionals of scientific graphology or graphoanalysis, nationally and internationally. Curiously, although there are federations that have a major international presence, at the moment none of them have taken any effective decisions concerning ethics and epistemology and their relation to certain practices which interfere with or damage the serious and rigorous development of graphological science. For this reason, the Institute of Graphological Sciences has contributed in drafting a manifesto against pseudo-graphologies (the so-called Rational Graphology or Idengraphy) and against any association of graphology with quackery, witchcraft, fortune telling or harmful sectarian philosophical systems. Beyond that, the Institute of Graphological Sciences has set up an International Deontology Committee so that university graphological authorities should be the ones in charge of said activities.