Afterburn (psychotherapy) Afterburn (psychotherapy) Afterburn is a psychological term coined by Eric Berne, who defined it as "the period of time before a past event is assimilated". Eric Berne, the founding father of transactional analysis, used the term "afterburn" to indicate the effect an atypical past event continues to exert on a person's daily schedule, activities and mental state even "after" it is over: to "those occasions when it disturbs normal patterns for an appreciable period, rather than being assimilated into them or excluded from them by repression and other psychological mechanisms". For Berne, afterburn is the flip side of reachback, which
Suzanne Berne Britain's prestigious Orange Prize. Told through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, the book chronicles a child's murder in a sleepy suburb of Washington, D.C. against the backdrop of the unfolding Watergate scandal. "A Perfect Arrangement" tells of the complex and increasingly disturbing relationship between a normal suburban family and their exceptionally perfect nanny. "The Ghost at the Table" explores the dramatic territory between two sisters' differing versions of their shared history. Suzanne Berne Suzanne Berne (born 1961 Washington, D.C.) is an American novelist known for her foreboding character studies involving unexpected domestic and psychological drama in bucolic suburban settings.