Uh, for anybody who read a previous version of this post: it was a false promise that it links the progress of insight to psychosis, nevertheless it may pay off according to the current question. Facts are as follows, as I found out after a recheck:
Edward Podvoll , a former teaching therapist & psychiatris at the Naropa Institute and later tibetan buddhist lama, presents a theoretical framework of causes and dynamics of different aspects of psychosis, to which he also counts bipolar disorder, in his book
"Recovering Sanity" . In previous editions it was titled "The Seduction of Madness", to which I refer here, Harper Collins 1990, its subtitle is "revolutionary insights into the world of psychosis and a compassionate approach to recovery at home". Theory is being introduced in it using of four case studies.
There's a list of possible triggers for psychosis contained, e.g. sleep deprivation or acute kidney failure, though "general harshness of the world" is not listed, and an attempt to explain general, especially institutionalized ("furor therapeuticus"), aggression against psychotics (put short it is everyone's fear of the own potential to go mad, which, as it is said, everyone could). The recovery approach also embraces the social design of treatment facilities to avoid exactly that sort of hostility. Perhaps the user manual for hostile institutions is
Erving Goffman's "Asylums - Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates".
Podvoll put his approach into practice in the
windhorse recovery programs for psychotic patients released from psychiatric hospitals, sort of non-treatment approach based on genuine personal relationships backed with mindfulness. A clinically certified paranoid schizophrenic friend of mine (whom I additionally certified having passed A&P accompanied with piles of special effects) strongly agreed to the views proposed (but unfortunately he couldn't make any use of it any more since he jumped in front of a train a few weeks ago. Or it even may have been one of the triggers, bringing enough clarity to leave but not enough perspective to stay, who knows **). Btw. recently appeared the documentary
someone beside you abut the situation of mentally ill in general and the windhorse approach in particular.
Although the whole book abounds with what seem to be references to insight stages (e.g. speaking about "awakening" in an A&P manner, p. 17, or about psychosis as "spiritual crisis" in a dark night fashion, p. 64) and there is a lot about cycling through stages, powers, effort, mindfulness, speed and so on, indeed it does not employ the stages of insight, particularilly not the classical
progress of insight a la Mahasi Sayadaw for example.
It rather presents an development model for psychotic states of mind that appears superficially seen somehow like a totally messed up rush through the insight stages, sharing to some extent their typical symptoms and occasionally its final outcome, but it is a rush through the concept of "existential realms" (sort of metaphors for specific mental background coloring for everyday experience) in the sequence ("the cycling journey of losing mind", applying some proprietary terminology)
Gods > Paranoia > Hell > Desire > Greed > Compulsion > Gods etc. (p. 34), entry point may be anywhere. When Podvoll describes mania he adds a more specific sequence (p. 111), finally leading to complete psychotic take off, where one of its stages is called "absorption", relating directly to the meditative absorption states ("infinite space, infinite consciousness" etc). Among its basic driving forces (p. 171 ff) is not mindfulness but sort of inverse perverted form of it, Podvoll calls it mindlessness, a intentional and concentrated application of ignorance towards specific aspects of perception in general. Mindfulness comes into play for recovery.
The "existential realms"-thing comes from buddhist psychology, put to weird elaboration by the tibetan branch who added the notion of "bardo". Both bardo and realms are in sort of 1:1 relationship, where bardo provides the opportunity for both enlightemnent as well as madness (I don't feel able to go into details, its really weird). Madness itself has a specific meaning here, as explicated in "Transcending Madness" (Shambhala 1992) by Choegyam Trungpa, Podvolls Teacher. He says that basically everybody is mad to some extend, only the state of enlightenment is not (p. 82 ff.). Being clinically mad could be seen as being stuck in a bardo state, which usually is a passing phenomenon, and only relating to "earthy" experiences (employing the senses like e.g. during manual work, walks in the nature etc.) may lead out of it (p. 133). Among "earthy, earthy" phenomena Trungpa interestingly counts getting drunk (p 173) as opposed to the effect of other drugs, which create a "spacy" quality. But I don't think that this should (or is) considered as a valid intervention in case of psychosis. Trungpa died at the age of 48 from the effects of alcohol abuse.
Put together Podvoll announces a model for the stages and dynamics of psychosis which share some of the characteristics of certain insight stages, but has an entirely different structure than the progress of insight, appearing in its best outcome somehow as a messy, sick, hell-bound second possible "path" for the human mind towards the same goal (e.g. check out the interpretation of psychotic events from the view of those who experienced them in Karl Jasper's "General Psychopathology").
In Dan Ingrams "Mastering the Core Teaching of the Buddha" there is a case mentioned where a highly realized meditator still stuck to medication, to counteract his bipolar disorder. Well, when people, who through ardous application of midfulness reached high realization, still mess up in bipolar disorder, this seems to totally contradict the arguments given here. But Podvolls phenomenology of madness seems to target only the maximum cases of bipolar disorder
(see ICD-10 F31.) with psychotic characteristics. For the latter amplified mood swings seem to be a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for full escalation, which the bipolar Arahant is likely to aviod. Btw. is there any psychotic Arahant out there?
Using this occasion I also want to advertise the discussion about
mindfulness meditation and personality disorders sharing some flavour with the one here. Maybe there could be a more generalized "meditation and DSM-IV topics" discussion group anyway.
@Nicola Joanne Dunn: Greetings & good luck. When I ranted about my Mahasi-monk-certified "dark night" to one of my mad friends she just said "ah, shut up, we've ever been in dark night anyway. What special is there to rant about?". The sort of meatgrinder-experience you describe by far exceeds standard dark night levels of suffering (as to Wilber e.a. in their book "Transformations of Consciousness"). Maybe Podvolls concepts come closer to whats going on with you, but in that case you're the expert to judge.
** Another friend/therapist of mine chose that job after a friend of him has been brought from a meditation center straight to a mental hospital in London, where, as far as I remember, he hung himself. Seems indeed that there needs to be done something there too. Maybe conducting mental health screenings for everyone before starting a retreat? Anyway, my friend/therapist is about to write a master thesis focusing on the integration of meditation and therapy, maybe it will sell well some day.