The_Info_Web/70 - DISPATCHES/2026-10-09 Neither Cleared Nor Witting.md

title	date	status	summary	entities	tags
Neither Cleared Nor Witting	2026-10-09	published	In 1961 the CIA funded a New School graphologist's handwriting lexicon through the Human Ecology Fund, and Sidney Gottlieb closed the file after her death.	Klara G. Roman Project MKUltra Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology Sidney Gottlieb New School for Social Research John R. Everett Frank Haronian	MKUltra NewSchool Graphology

Neither Cleared Nor Witting

Klara G. Roman, a Budapest-born graphologist and clinical psychologist, taught graphology at the New School for Social Research in New York City from 1948. From 1959 she worked on a lexicon of handwriting.¹²

A Central Intelligence Agency memorandum of August 24, 1961 opened Project MKUltra Subproject 137 "to support the work of Dr." [redacted] "in completing a psycholexicon on handwriting." It states that she "has an international reputation for her work in graphology and speech," that "She is advanced in years and her health is failing," and that the manuscript was "now eighty percent complete." The memorandum cites the Technical Services Division's "general requirement to further the Agency's capability for the indirect assessment of personality," states that the project "will be funded through the" [redacted] "for security and cover purposes," and records that the investigator was "neither cleared nor witting of Agency sponsorship." The curriculum vitae attached to the proposal lists a 1928 diploma, the invention of the Graphodyne for measuring writing speed and pressure, a 1948 research appointment in conjunction with an "Institute for Psychoanalysis," and a faculty membership beginning in 1948; each entry matches Roman's record.³¹ The copy of this memorandum that the CIA sent the New School on September 7, 1977 carries a red insertion, "New School for Social Research, New York City," in the redacted line naming the investigator's institution; the covering letter states that "the name of the School has been reinserted wherever it appears in the original documents." The memorandum of May 29, 1961 for Subproject 134, a body-type study, carries the same insertion and the line "Mr." [redacted] "is neither cleared nor witting of true Sponsor."⁴ A 1964 paper on body type by A. Arthur Sugerman and Frank Haronian in the Journal of Personality states that the study "was partly supported by a grant to Frank Haronian from the Human Ecology Fund."⁵ Haronian, a school psychologist in Somerville, New Jersey from 1950, received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the New School in 1963.⁶

A treasurer's check for $2,000 was issued on September 11, 1961. Roman died on August 9, 1962.²³ An accounting memorandum of February 1963 states that she "died in 1962 and did not send in an accounting," that the file held "a letter from her brother stating that the manuscript is almost finished," and that "The Fund will receive its usual acknowledgement in the publication of the manuscript." An unsigned, undated certification form in the file states that the recipient "died in 1962 without rendering an accounting" and that "a manuscript has been published and value received." The accounting form was approved on March 10, 1964 over the signature of Sidney Gottlieb, "DC/TSD."³

The Encyclopedia of the Written Word was published by F. Ungar Publishing Company in 1968. Its acknowledgments thank "The Handwriting Institute and The Human Ecology Fund," and Dr. Walter P. Pasternak "of the Human Ecology Fund."⁷² Pasternak appears as technical writer in the 1957 annual report of the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, renamed the Human Ecology Fund in 1961.⁸ The Fund's 1963 report, as tabulated by the anthropologist David H. Price, lists $2,000 to "Roman, Klara G." for "Book: The Psychology of Writing."⁹

The records of New School president John R. Everett hold a file labeled "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978." Its description refers to "two projects conducted at the New School in 1962 that received funding through MKUltra," the second of which "concerned graphology and psychopathologies."¹⁰ A decade earlier the school's Propaganda Research Center, whose research was performed in large part with assistance from the Office of Naval Research, kept a project file titled "Graphology in Political Intelligence," dated 1952.¹¹

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1. New School Archives and Special Collections, Maurice Edwards papers documenting the work of graphologist Klara G. Roman (NA-0010-01), biographical note. https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/284 ↩︎

2. Klara G. Roman, Encyclopedia of the Written Word, ed. Rose Wolfson and Maurice Edwards (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1968), acknowledgments and editors' account signed by Rose Wolfson. ↩︎

3. MKULTRA Subproject 137, Central Intelligence Agency release DOC_0000017396: memorandum for the record, August 24, 1961; proposal and curriculum vitae; invoice for check no. 185479, September 11, 1961; accounting memorandum, February 1963; accounting by individual for advance, approved March 10, 1964. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/00017396 ↩︎

4. Central Intelligence Agency, letter of A. R. Cinquegrana to John R. Everett, September 7, 1977, with red insertions on the Subproject 137 memorandum of August 24, 1961 and the Subproject 134 memorandum of May 29, 1961, New School Archives and Special Collections, John R. Everett records, NS010102_000027. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS010102_000027 ↩︎

5. A. Arthur Sugerman and Frank Haronian, "Body type and sophistication of body concept," Journal of Personality 32(3), September 1964, pp. 380-394. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1964.tb01347.x ↩︎

6. "Frank J. Haronian Jr., 72, a clinical psychologist, died October 22 at his home in Lawrenceville," obituary, Town Topics (Princeton), October 26, 1994. https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince4834unse ↩︎

7. Library of Congress catalog record, LCCN 68-12124, Encyclopedia of the written word; a lexicon for graphology and other aspects of writing (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1968). ↩︎

8. Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, 1957 Annual Report, officers and staff; John D. Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (New York: Times Books, 1979), chapter 9, p. 149 n. ↩︎

9. David H. Price, "Buying a piece of anthropology, Part 1: Human Ecology and unwitting anthropological research for the CIA," Anthropology Today 23(3), June 2007, fig. 4. ↩︎

10. New School Archives and Special Collections, John R. Everett records (NS-01-01-02), Series 3, Box 7, Folder 29, "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978." https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/34220 ↩︎

11. New School Archives and Special Collections, Institute of World Affairs records, Series 3, Propaganda Research Center, 1947-1953, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/27434 ; "Graphology in Political Intelligence, 1952," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/27446 ↩︎