|
by Dafna Yalon THE WORKSHOP The Star-Wave Test (SWT), part of a graphic test battery (including also the Wartegg Test, the Tree Test and Handwriting), was developed and validated by the German graphologist and educational psychologist Ursula Avé-Lallemant (1979). First designed for the identification of school immaturity in kindergarten, it was originally suggested as a developmental test for the ages 3 to 6, but was soon established as a personality test for all ages, children and adults alike. It can be evaluated both from a projective aspect (symbols) and from an expressive aspect (graphological analysis). In the workshop we shall present a summary of those three perspectives
We shall concentrate on the unique benefits of the test, as an auxiliary tool to graphological assessment, enabling clear-cut differentiation between the three fundamental pictures of handwriting: Movement, Form and Spatial arrangement. The stroke qualities, as well as the graphic signs of distress give information about temporary or habitual alarming situations. The test instructions to draw "A starry sky over ocean waves" awakens collective associations and personal memories based on these archetypical symbols, as well as a projection of the innermost world, its dynamics and organization. Due to the simple, almost childish task, deep and regressive reactions are frequent, often disclosing the impact of traumas, inner conflicts, parental identification and identity problems. Therefore, the SWT often gives direct clues to the deepest motives and vivid representations of unconscious “mental map”, layers which the more socialized handwriting does not reach.
 DAFNA YALON. In my “first life” I studied Biology,obtaining a B.Sc. in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the M.Sc. in bacterial Genetics in the Tel-Aviv University, and finally studied towards a Ph.D. in Genetics for two years in the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. During that period I also took many courses in Psychology, Art History and Languages. One of them was a Graphology course, which has gradually become an obsession. I studied for over two years with Zvi Popowsky (French school) and for three more years from German, English and Hebrew books, before I took the professional examination of the AAHA in 1984. I also did the Graphoanalysis course of IGAS. For many years I have collaborated with Rudi Danor (German school). Our joint work finally culminated into a book on the Wittlich system (Towards Scientific Graphology). After a few years of counseling to adults only, I decided to focus on children and family problems and studied the interpretation of children’s drawings from psychological and graphological aspects. In the last 17 years I have regularly travelled to study with Ursula Avé-Lallemant in Munich, who has become my mentor for personal consultations, children's graphology and the graphic test battery (the Star Wave Test, the Wartegg Test and the Tree Test). Last year I have finished a three year course in family and couple therapy, and also a specialization of two years in short term strategic therapy. During the last three years I co-ordinated an international endeavor, seeking the universal aspects of graphic expression in non-Roman writing systems, drawings and scribbles, which was recently published as a book, Graphology Across Cultures, by the British Institute of Graphologists. In the 20 years of my professional activity I held several posts at the Israeli Society for Scientific Graphology (President, Secretary, Head of the accredication committee and Editor of their journal). Currently I’m on the executive board of the IGC. |
