Bohuslav Brouk (November 19, 1912, Prague-Holešovice [1] – January 19, 1978, London) was a psychoanalyst, writer, poet, publicist, philosopher, esthetician, sociologist and biologist, one of the most prominent figures in the Czech interwar avant-garde. [2] From 1948 he lived in exile. He was one of the first promoters of psychoanalysis and a critical interpreter of Sigmund Freud’s work in Czechoslovakia. His work concerns psychoanalysis (Autosexualism and Psycherotism, 1935), language and manner of expression (Linguistic Comedian, 1941), or human relations to things (so-called chrematology or the science of things, People and Things, 1947).
Life
He was the younger son of Jaroslav Brouk, a co-founder of Brouk and Babka. In 1931 he graduated from the Business Academy in Prague Karlín, a year later he passed the school-leaving examination at the grammar school in Klatovy. After a short study at the Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, he studied biology and anthropology at the Faculty of Science, Charles University (doctorate 1937), and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (doctorate 1946). He first published in magazines in 1930 in Tvorba.
This enfant terrible of the Czech avant-garde and bohemians of the 1930s and 1940s became a co-founder of the Surrealist Group in the Czechoslovak Republic in 1934, whose leaflet, informing about its establishment, he published at his own expense. The Beetle was not a member of the Surrealist Group only for the form, he actively participated in the contemporary discussion of art and politics. Already in the nine-year-old magazine ReD (9/1930), he published a text on the relationship of psychoanalysis to Marxism, which initially connected artists. [3] During a dispute within the group, in 1938, he sided with Karel Teige against Vítězslav Nezval. He dealt mainly with psychoanalysis, sexology, suicide and a number of other topics. During World War II, he worked as an artistic advisor to the White Swan department store, which was built and owned by the family company.
In the post-war period 1945–1948, he became intensively involved in political and journalistic activities – as one of the few intellectuals at that time he lectured publicly and published texts in the press in which he systematically and relentlessly unmasked communist ideology and especially the practical policies of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. In addition, together with his friends, architects Karel Honzík and Ladislav Žák, he developed the concept of lifestyle [4].
In the spring of 1948 he went into exile, first to the American occupation zone in Germany, then to France (Paris), Australia (Melbourne), and from the end of 1958 he lived in the United Kingdom (London).
Work
Psychoanalysis, Prague 1932
Almanac Tribes: Year 1932/1933, Prague 1932 (contains article by U. S. S. R.)
ŠTYRSKÝ, Jindřich, Emilie Comes to Me in a Dream, Prague 1933, author of the text (2nd ed. – reprint – Prague 2001); angl. in NEZVAL, Vítězslav – ŠTYRSKÝ, Jindřich, Edition 69, přel. Jed Slast, Prague 2004, an abridged version was also published in a Polish translation by Joanna Derdowska entitled Fragments of Business to the Proc of Jindřich Štyrski in the magazine red, maj 2007, nr. 1 (2), pp. 25-26
Psychoanalytic Sexology, Prague 1933 (2nd ed. In Human Soul and Sex, Prague 1992)
Autosexualism and Psycherotism, Volume I, Autosexualism, Prague 1935 (2nd ed. Under almost slightly changed title Autosexualism and Psychoerotism, Prague 1992)
Neither Swan nor Lůna: Proceedings on the 100th Anniversary of the Death of Karel Hynek Mácha, ed. Vítězslav Nezval, Prague 1936, contribution Mach’s Cult (2nd ed. – reprint – Prague 1995)
On Death, Love and Jealousy, Prague 1936, Confiscated [5] (2nd ed. Entitled On the Foolishness of Life and Death, Prague 2009, ed. Viktor A. Debnár)
Balance of Psychoanalysis as of December 31, 1936, [Prague 1936] (reprinted in Jarmark umění, December 1992, No. 5, pp. 4–6)
Pathology of Life Fitness, Prague 1937 (originally dissertation Intelligence, Talent, Genius and Methods of Their Research defended in 1937 at the Faculty of Science, Charles University)
The Last Days of Ethics, Prague 1937
Marriage – Sanatorium for the Inferior, [Prague 1937]
Stoupa života, [Prague 1938]
On the Functions of Work and Personality, Prague 1938 ([2nd ed.] Prague 1939; 3rd ed. Prague 2009, ed. Viktor A. Debnár)
Fear of respite: A reflection on the negative meaning of human activity, [Prague 1939] (reprinted in Tvar, September 3, 1992, r. 3, no. 36, p. 6)
The Misery of One Imagination, [Prague 1940]
Language comedian: Aesthetic Study, Prague 1941 (defended as a dissertation at the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in 1946)
Gravity of general education, Prague 1946 (a large part of the essay reprinted in Babylon [unavailable source], March 9, 2009, XVIII, No. 6, pp. IV-V)
Rationalization of consumption: Basic problems of design, Prague 1946
Today and tomorrow, rkp., Planned edition in 1946-1947 (published by Aventinum) was not realized
On the beauty of nature and sadness Sunday, rkp., The planned edition in 1947 was not realized
Encounter: Soviet Painting and Contemporary Art, ed. O [takar] Mrkvička, Prague 1947 (contains reprinted article On the Response of the Exhibition of Soviet Art, Dnešek, May 1, 1947, r. II, no. 5, pp. 72–73)
People and Things, Prague 1947 (examples reprinted in Analogon, 2008, d. [20], no. 54, pp. I – XII)
Letters from exile to future mistresses, Paris 1949 (under the pseudonym Jan Vlasák, reproduced by cyclostyle; reprinted in Here embarrassingly exist, see below)
On the Shame of Freedom and Philosophy: The Concept of Freedom in the History of Human Thought and Its Appropriate Significance, rkp., Melbourne-London 1954-1958 , No. 12, pp. 300–323, part of the manuscript was published under the title O šalbě svobody a filosofie, Prague 2011
On Freedom and Democracy: Reflections from the Journey to Australia, [London 1960] (probably reproduced by cyclostyle; published under the inaccurate title Freedom and Democracy with the subtitle in Analogon, 2001, r. [12], Nos. 31–32, p. 49 –52, reprinted in Here embarrassing to exist, see below)
Responses to Czech poems, [London 196-] (probably reproduced by cyclostyle; reprinted in Here embarrassing to exist / see below /, the poem Smutní hrana was published on Michal Jareš’s blog)
Twenty Years of Freedom: 1945–1965, [London 1964, sic!] (Probably reproduced by cyclostyle; reprinted in Here embarrassing to exist, see below)
Plants Consumed by Man, London – New York – San Francisco 1975
The Human Soul and Sex, Prague 1992 (contains: Psychoanalytic Sexology and The Prophecy of Jindřich Štyrský’s Prose Emilie Comes to Me in a Dream)
Autosexualism and Psychoerotism, 1992 (contains: Autosexualism and Psychoerotism, Balance of Psychoanalysis as of December 31, 1936, Last Days of Ethics, Marriage: Sanatorium for the Inferior, Rise of Life, Fear of Rest: Reflections on the Negative Meaning of Human Activity and The Misery of One Imagination)
Anthology of texts with cultural and political themes for the period 1945–1948, II. part, [ed.] Jiří Staněk, Plzeň 1997 (contains reprinted article On the Response of the Exhibition of Soviet Art, Dnešek, May 1, 1947, r. II, no. 5, pp. 72–73)
On the Lost Vart of the West: An Anthology of Czech Non-Socialist Journalism from 1945–1948, ed. Milan Drápala, Prague 2000 (contains an extensive selection of articles from 1945-1948)
Embarrassing to exist here, ed. Viktor A. Debnár, Brno 2008 (contains texts and correspondence from the years of exile 1948-1978)
The Book of the Dick, ed. Nela D. Astonová, Prague 2009 (contains a short excerpt from the book Autosexualism and Psychoerotism, 1992)
Life Style, ed. Viktor A. Debnár, Brno 2010 (planned publication in 1946-1947 in Orbis was not realized)
On the Shame of Freedom and Philosophy, ed. Viktor A. Debnar, Prague 2011
Private Prints, ed. Viktor A. Debnár, Prague 2013 (contains: Onanie as a world view, Afterword: Emilie comes to me in a dream (Jindřich Štyrský), Mach’s cult, Balance of psychoanalysis as of December 31, 1936, Last days of ethics, Marriage: Sanatorium for the inferior, Judaism – The Work of the Aryans, The Rise of Life, Fear of Rest: Reflections on the Negative Meaning of Human Activity, The Misery of One Imagination, Letters from Exile to the Next Mistresses, and On Freedom and Democracy: Reflections from the Journey to Australia) In Defense of Individualism: Journalism from 1930-1960, ed. Viktor A. Debnar, Prague 2014 Samples from some of Beetle’s texts are contained in the article Thoughts of Bohuslav Brouk (Analogon, 1992, d. IV, no. 9, pp. 21–22) and Who has a butt for a public performance? (Babylon, November 29, 2010, XIX, No. 14, p. 7).
More at WIKI here: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohuslav_Brouk
