Anamnesis (Greek: ανάμνηση, meaning recollection, reminiscence) is a term used in medicine, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religion.
In philosophy, Plato wrote about Socrates' theory of anamnesis. He suggests that the soul is immortal, since it is repeatedly incarnated.
Knowledge is actually in the soul from the beginning, but each otime the soul is incaranted its knowledge is forgotten in the shock of birth.
What we think of as learning, then, is actually bringing back what we had forgotten. Plato presents us with a way of living our lives so that we can overcome the misleading nature of body through catharsis (Greek: κάθαρση: "cleansing" (from guilt or defilement) or "purification"). The body and its senses are the source of error, and knowledge can only be regained through the use of our reason by contemplating things with the soul.
