anamnesis

Noun

anamnesis (countable and uncountable, plural anamneses)

1. The ability to recall past events; recollection.
2. The remembrance and celebration of God’s works by the liturgy of the church.
3. A patient's account of their medical history.
   • But it is always well for the beginner to secure as complete an anamnesis, or prior history, as possible, in order that he may allow nothing of importance to escape his attention.
   • The anamnesis generally begins with and involves the question as to whether the disease is acute or chronic, what organs are affected or inclined to be diseased.1898, Francis H. Stuart (translator), Oswald Vierordt, A Clinical Text-book of Medical Diagnosis for Physicians and Students, 4th Edition, [1897, O. Vierordt, Diagnostik der Innerer Krankheiten, 5th...
4. (Platonism) The recollection of innate knowledge acquired before birth, according to Plato’s theory of epistemology.
   • There are also reasons for thinking that Socratic anamnesis, inquiry and learning are quite unlike anamnesis, inquiry and learning as ordinarily understood.1990, Stewart Umphrey, Zetetic Skepticism, Longwood Academic, page 13
5. (rhetoric) The mention of the past; quotation of exemplary authors from memory to establish one’s authority.