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
Robert M. Berne Robert M. Berne Robert M. Berne (April 22, 1918 – October 4, 2001) was a heart specialist and a medical educator whose textbooks were used by generations of physicians Berne was recognized widely for his seminal research contributions on the role of adenosine in the blood flow to the heart. Berne was the Chair and the Founder of cardiovascular research at the University of Virginia as well as the Chair of Department of Physiology there, He was also President of the American Physiological Society. Berne was a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement