On Kanfer and the Detection of Cancer from Handwriting

Copyright 2003-2004 by  Pat Siegel

Alfred Kanfer worked at the Strang Clinic for many years where he examined handwriting samples of their patients. I have two of Florence Anthony's files on Kanfer, which have a number of articles about Kanfer's research, and the results of her work with him. But they do not have the list of graphic indicators Kanfer's technique measured. I seem to remember Florence saying there were about 25 indicators. But remember, these tests were done in a standardized manner regarding paper, and level of magnification. It is likely that the pen was standardized as well.

Kanfer, Florence and Irene Blaser did a reliability study of 226 patients all tested by each examiner. One of the examiners tested additional specimens. I have a copy of their raw data. Although I do not have the group of graphics used by them as positive indicators, I did attend a lecture in the 70s in which a number of slides were shown of magnified handwritings. My guess was that they were magnified about 30X. One of the key factors evaluated, I recall, was the degree of segmentation in the stroke quality in the connecting strokes between letters. This cannot be seen with the naked eye. But I clearly remember the slides, and the lecturer demonstrated the progressive deterioration of that connecting stroke.

Kanfer examined thousands of handwritings. The results of the relatively small study that Florence participated in are seen below. Remarkable results.

Kanfer did explain his work, for example he wrote an article with Dr Daniel Casten (1958). An article appeared in 1971, entitled "Kanfer Neuromuscular or Handwriting Test". In Huntington Hartford's 1973 book, You Are What You Write, there is a chapter that Florence told me was written by Kanfer. There are other examples which can be found in the references section.

In Hartford 's book, Kanfer stated "with the development of cancer, handwriting gradually retrogressed from normal and mature neuromuscular functioning into a stage of immaturity, a process which started long before there was any clinical manifestation of cancer." His summary stated that at the Strang Clinic about 80% of the handwritings would be rated negative. The percentage of this group presenting with cancer within three years was "infinitesimally small." Another group, rated doubtful, was about 10%. The incidence of cancer in this group was higher than in the group rated negative. 10% were rated positive. Among this group medically detectable cancer was found in between 80 and 90% of patients. I don't know why he reported approximate numbers, but perhaps it was because he was involved in a number of studies which made up the total of his work.

Kanfer cautioned in the very last sentence of the chapter: "The Kanfer Test does not determine the presence or absence of cancer by itself - it determines only a factor which is associated with cancer."

I had a conversation with Dr. Ari Naftali in the early 80s about Kanfer's test.  Dr. Naftali was a medical doctor and highly respected graphologist and handwriting identification expert in Israel. Ari was skeptical about being able to detect cancer from handwriting. He said that Kanfer could be measuring the deterioration of the neurological system , making someone susceptible to cancer or to other diseases. So this is something to keep in mind, not just regarding cancer but regarding other possible diagnoses as well. Do we throw this information out or do we use it discretely and build on it with information from other sources?

What about the problem of a finding of positive result from a handwriting when there is no medical diagnosis? What does that information do? What psychological harm can it do when there is no detectable cancer to treat? This was exactly Kanfer's problem. He went to the Strang doctors to tell them he saw positive indicators of cancer in his own handwriting. They couldn't find the cancer until three weeks before he died.

Table 1. Kanfer Neuro-muscular Test for the Separation of Low and High Risk Cancer. Raw Data – 226 patients. Three Examiners: Florence Anthony, Irene Blaser, Alfred Kanfer

On the left, Clinical Diagnosis indicates whether doctors were able to detect cancer in the patients (positive) or whether there was not cancer detected in patients (negative).  There were three independent people who examined the handwritings, Kanfer, Anthony and Blaser. They are anonymously designated as examiner A, B or C.  The number of patients who were clinically diagnosed as positive or negative is indicated under the column Number of Patients. (About a fifth of the patients examined at Strang for this study were found to have cancer, i.e. were positive.) The last three columns indicate the results of the three examiners' evaluations of these same patients' handwritings. They were found to be positive, negative or doubtful (inconclusive) from the handwriting specimen examinations.

For instance, Examiner A unknowingly examined the handwriting of 55 cancer patients and found that there were 53 positive results out of this group, no negative results clearing them of being suspect of cancer, and 2 doubtful results in which the handwriting examination results were inconclusive.

The same Examiner A unknowingly examined 211 patients for whom cancer was not detected. Of those, 150 had negative handwriting results, 40 had doubtful results, and 21 had positive results. Of course the question is: could the 21 positive results be detectable by clinical diagnosis at a later date, such as the case with Kanfer himself? But that question goes beyond the data presented on this chart.

The significance of the chart is the seeming reliability not only of the correlation between clinical diagnosis and handwriting examination results, but also the apparent reliability among raters. Chi square statistics were calculated on these data as well.

The only unanswered question in this chart are the total numbers. It was indicated in the written part of the report that 226 patients were examined by everyone, and one person did 19 more than the others, but there are more than 226 subjects on this chart. I suspect that perhaps more subjects were added at some point and not reflected in the written document.

References

Anon (c1970) Condensed resume of cancer detection research 1930-1959. Preventive Medicine Institute, Strang Clinic. (distributed by Charlie Cole)

Anon (1971) Unproven methods of cancer management. Kanfer Neuromuscular or Handwriting Test. C.A. a Cancer Journal for Clinicians 21: 120-122, See http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/ 

Anon (1974) Kanfer Obituary. 10(3) pg 9

Hartford, Huntington (1973) You Are What You Write

Kanfer &  Casten D (1958) Neuromuscular aberrations with developing malignancies. The Bulletin of the Hospital for Joint Diseases, April.

Kanfer and R. S. Fischer.(1970)  The Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research held in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , April 9-11.See abstract no 163.

Mendel OA (1947  ) Personality in Handwriting pp339-359

Victor F (1959) Further details on the Kanfer Cancer Report.  World Analyst, 1(5), 2-3

Notes

1. Patricia Siegel, 23 South Drive, Great Neck , NY 11021 USA. Email:     Patsiegel@aol.com. Pat states "Most of what I know about Kanfer is from Florence Anthony who along with her husband Dan, were my mentors."

2. Bibliographic clarifications provided by Dor Gauthier with thanks.

3. The following biographical detail is from Anon (1971 above) , kindly extracted by Dor Gauthier.

"Alfred Kanfer was born about 1902. In 1934, he was a handwriting consultant to the Austrian Department of Justice, when he first became interested in a possible connection between handwriting and disease. In 1938, he was imprisoned with his wife in the Dachau concentration camp.  Later they were released and allowed to flee the country. They came to the United States. Unable to find work as a graphologist, Mr. Kanfer worked at a variety of jobs until in 1945 he obtained employment as a dishwasher in the pathology laboratory of the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York city. While there, he obtained the permission of the laboratory chief to examine some patients' signatures. In 1958, an article appeared in the Hospital journal, signed by Mr. Kanfer and Dr. Daniel F. Casten, reporting on the analysis of more than 10,000 specimens of handwriting at the hospital.  From 1959 until May 1964, he pursued his studies as Research Assistant at the Institute for Handwriting in New York City, under the sponsorship of Huntington Hartford. From May 1964 to the present, he has been at the Strang Clinic."

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 Graphology Information Center (ENG)-  Centre d'information graphologique (FR)- Centro d'informazione di grafologia (IT) Centro de información grafológica     4 Feb 2003. Corrections to bradlen@graphology.ws  This page modified  19 Jan 2004.