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The International Graphological Colloquium (IGC) is a non-profit corporation based in Canada. It was founded in 1998 by a small group of highly-respected professional graphologists from The Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States. Their initiative and vision led many other professional graphologists from the western world to join them at the first meeting of the IGC in Montreal in 1998. The organization is now made up of a selected group of dedicated professionals from most of the countries where graphology has a real presence, Since 1998, the IGC has sponsored six other international graphological events (Urbino and Basel 1999, Barcelona 2000, Dijon 2002, Paris 2003 and Quebec City 2004) at which the emphasis was on engaging in comparative analyses in small groups and on panel discussions of major issues confronting graphology. For the first few years of its existence, the IGC limited attendance at its meetings almost entirely to full-time practitioners. Only a few from each graphological association could be accommodated in order to have the possibility of developing the team spirit needed to make significant contributions to the field. Starting in 2004, every three years the IGC will open its meetings to everyone involved in handwriting analysis, regardless of their training. It is our hope that by doing this, participants can learn from one another, share experiences, examine and integrate diverse perspectives, all for the benefit of our profession. Since most major graphological organizations are representedin the IGC by officers or board members, networking and information-sharing between the IGC and other graphological groups takes place quite naturally on an ongoing basis. The IGC seeks to identify and address areas of major concern to our profession. These include the need for serious students as well as professionals to devote time regularly to doing comparative analysis. This makes us aware of the continuing need to learn from each other and to recognize graphologically different approaches to doing analyses. In the area of training, we have already produced a Unified Curriculum and are working to build a consensus on Basic Definitions, without which handwriting analyses of any given script are unlikely to be reasonably congruent with each other. Without such congruent results, how can the general public ever regard handwriting analysis as a serious profession? One of our immediate aims is to make existing useful information available to the various linguistic groups. To this end, the IGC is starting to publish translations of important books and study materials. One example is Esther Dosch¹s book on the stroke which was translated from German to English and published in 2004. Another example is our journal, Global Graphology, which has been published in five languages. These bridge-building activities have made it possible to collect a broad range of ideas and methods and to work toward shared insights. The IGC recognizes that consensus on basic definitions is essential to diverse systems of analysis. This became apparent at our 1999 Basel meeting where a team of French-trained analysts met with a team trained in Swiss and German methods and engaged in comparative analysis. Both during the formal sessions and the breaks, team members became aware of their differences in approach and arrived at a meeting of the minds despite initial language barriers. Three books in English have been written following workshops given during IGC meetings: Griffiths on the Wartegg Test, De Petrillio and Millevolte on the Moretti system and Yalon’s Graphology Across Cultures. The practice of comparative analysis has been spreading though many countries. New information that members have acquired at our courses and workshops circulates through various graphological communities via lectures and articles in different languages. Finally it is our earnest hope that by making our meetings open to everyone every third year and by providing study materials and qualified lecturers to various groups, we will be making significant efforts to upgrade graphology to a universal discipline, based on common psycho-diagnostic criteria. This will hopefully increase academic support and promote better public awareness and recognition of our profession. |
