-We present here an extension of the Caldeira-Leggett linear response model considering a pseudo-Hermitian PT -symmetric system-reservoir interaction. Our generalized FeynmanVernon functional, derived from the PT -symmetric coupling, accounts for two influence channels: a velocity-dependent one, which can act in reverse, providing energy to the system instead of draining it as usual, and an acceleration-dependent drain, analogue to the radiation-emission process. Therefore, an adequate choice of the Hamiltonian's parameters may allow the system to extract energy from the reservoir even at absolute zero for a period that may be much longer than the characteristic relaxation time. After this energy supply, the system is driven to a steady state whose energy is necessarily higher than the thermodynamic equilibrium energy due to the velocity-dependent pump. This heating mechanism of the system is more pronounced the more distant from the hermiticity is its coupling with the reservoir. An analytical derivation of the high-temperature master equation is provided helping us to better understand the whole scenario and to compute the associated relaxation and decoherence rates. Introduction. -Quantum mechanics imposes the Hamiltonian to be self-adjoint for the spectrum to be real and the time evolution to be unitary. However, in the last two decades it has been demonstrated that self-adjointness can be replaced by the weaker requirement of symmetry under spatial reflection and time reversal (PT symmetry), which extends the set of available physical Hamiltonians and guarantee real spectrum and unitary evolution [1]. A great deal of research has been devoted to PTsymmetric systems, covering the most varied topics such as superconductivity [2], chaos in optomechanics [3], topological states [4], metrology [5], time-dependent pseudoHermitian Hamiltonians [6,7], etc. However, most of those initiatives deal with non-interacting and closed systems. Our purpose in the present article is to contribute filling this gap. In order to do so, we generalized, to the light of PT -symmetric quantum theory, the conventional systemreservoir model in which the open dynamics is modelled by considering the system of interest linearly coupled to a thermal bath responsible for its energy loss and decoherence process [8,9]. This model has been widely used to describe properties of open quantum systems in general situations [10][11][12]. Indeed, it has been extensively shown