flashback flash·back (flāsh'bāk')
n.
An unexpected recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug long after its original use.
A recurring, intensely vivid mental image of a past traumatic experience.
in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. The earlier events often take the form of reminiscence. The flashback technique is as old as Western literature. In the Odyssey, most of the adventures that befell Odysseus on his journey home from Troy are told in flashback by Odysseus when he is at the court of the Phaeacians.