Peter Raabe

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of the Fraser Valley

This essay defines the ontology of mental illness or mental disorder in non-biomedical terms, as consisting of problematic propositional mental content rather than organic brain malfunction. This allows for a causal theory of mental disorder to be located within the parameters of existential difficulties rather than biological pathology, and contra...

This essay offers a definition of brain as biological, and mind as a propositional or narrative construct. It is argued that non-biological mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia are not causal entities. They are simply the names given to symptom clusters. They originate in problematic beliefs, values, and assumptions. This leads to...

Raabe examines some of the most perplexing problems a client may present to a counselor and how a philosopher would deal with them. He provides a detailed philosophical discussion as well as illustrative case studies of some of the most important issues encountered in any counseling practice. The first six chapters discuss philosophical counseling...

Philosophers are generally reluctant to say much about the meaning of dreams, especially since Sigmund Freud appropriated the interpretation of dreams as part of psychoanalysis. In this essay I will first review some of the theories of dreams proposed by early philosophers that are now considered largely out-dated. I will then critically examine th...