An expert, unnamed graphologist visiting Butler Hospital 'asserted confidently that she could tell the difference between the handwritings of abnormal and normal people or whatever the difference is between people who get in and those who mange to stay out of mental hospitals'. Handwriting records of ten psychotic patients (nine schizophrenic and one manic depressive) were paired with those of ten presumably fairly well-adjusted individuals and the graphologist was asked to distinguish the 'normal' and 'abnormal' in each pair. The graphologist's number of correct predictions was not significantly greater than could be expected by chance. Eleven out of twenty-five unsophisticated judges did as well or better than she did. The authors question the definitions of personality variables used by graphologists and stress the difficulty of testing their claims, but refer to experimental publications in which the potential value of handwriting analysis as a diagnostic device was indicated.