Archetype : Artist

The Artist archetype, as identified by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning, experiences --

• Reputation as child: placid
• Coming of age: unfulfilling
• Coming of age focus: inter-dependency
• Young adulthood: improving
• Trans in midlife: conformist to experimental
• Leadership style entering elderhood: pluralistic, indecisive
• Reputation as elder: sensitive
• Treatment as elder: liked
• How they are nurtured: overprotective
• How they nurture: underprotective
• Position: Fourth in the cycle, recessive
• Positive reputation: caring, open-minded, expert
• Negative reputation: sentimental, complicating, indecisive
• Endowments: pluralism, expertise, due process

Today's Artists are Silent Gen.

• Born 1925-1942
• 33.2 million in 2005 (U.S.)
• Ages in 2007: 65-82
• American Artist generations have been Humanist, Parliamentary, Enlightenment, Compromise, Progressive, (now) Silent …

Today’s Homeland Generation, born 2003?-, and on for about 22 years, will be Artists. They are predicted to share a peer personality and life phase experience similar to today’s Silent Gen.

Sorry, there aren't any Strauss and Howe books specifically about the Artist Archetype, at least not to my knowledge. Though we can probably expect to see them soon as the Homeland Generation increases in size. For now, books that might be helpful here are 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?, as Nomads/GenX are a recessive generation, like Artists. Also, Artists are the predominant culture in raising GenX, so they may see a bit of themselves here. Warning: it might hurt to read this book, both as a GenXer and a Silent Gen.

Seriously, though, Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 is an excellent source of info to understand the Artists and today's Silent Gen. As is, of course, The Fourth Turning.