@kaia Sincerely, thank you for your kind and helpful advice in managing and mitigating my bipolar disorder. I feel that I am now much more adept at ordering the competing emotional spheres of euphoria and despair, and how they are distinct from the internal states of mania and depression - on a level deeper than mere behavioural analysis illuminates. :fern_smile:

In Jungian psychological terms, you have removed the noumatic cause of my childhood psychosis by facilitating internal resolution of an intensely compicated childhood traumatic imprint. I believe that this should facilitate a wider resolution of psychosis in every sense, including the clinical state characterised by the inability to engage in the belief evaluation cycle, which in mainstream practice is ordinarily only mitigated through chemical control of dopamine reception- something we both know is an inelegant and clumsy solution that is totally agnostic of both the underlying psychological processes in fully manifest acute psychotic states and unfortunate last resort.

If I am correct, then this essential correction should manifest in a real and observable sense, as in I should never again go into a clinical psychotic state and require sectioning. It would therefore be accurate in my perception to say that you have cured an acute (albeit in the opinion of my psychiatrist, who does not believe I qualify for bipolar disorder due to my evident control, transient) psychotic disorder, and you have done so with nothing but psychology, and no chemical aids.

I wish to advance the position that this was only fully possible for me because I adopted the Buddhist modes of thought, and I strongly encourage you to study schools of Buddhist thought and think of them as the "thinking hats" of Dr. Edward de Bono. I believe that they have strong potential for clinical application in psychology, and that many of them would be within the grasp of even acutely psychotic patients who will read hostile inference into even calm nature scenes. (Believe me when I say that I understand from first hand experience what a wet dream that is in psychology, by virtue of how difficult it is - being able to teach a clinical psychotic a new mode of thought.)

Zen is probably the most accessible and useful for most people, and helps in the achevement of mono no aware, and therefore Flow. Zen is wordless and must be revealed. Here's a great Zen koan: https://ashidakim.com/zenkoans/77noattachmenttodust.html

I also think you would find Vajrayana Buddhism (esoteric Buddhism) very psychologically interesting because it is so complex and in many ways dualistic. You may find the following article on the Tibetan "Wrathful Deities" (trigger warning for anyone reading: very alarming visual imagery.) It explains why they are the "First responders in meditation" who appear to monks:
https://buddhaweekly.com/tantric-wrathful-deities-the-psychology-and-extraordinary-power-of-enlightened-beings-in-their-fearsome-form/

It may also help in understanding Mahayana Buddhism as magic (which it is,) which I think helps to explain why Jung believed magic and psychology to be almost cognates.

In a broader sense of my progression in studying psychology, Buddhist thought has also helped me to achieve peace with behaviourism, a school of thought I was tilted on because I find Behavioural Activation to be such a crass technique. Fully understood, it's actually exactly what Buddhism operates on. 😅

To advocate for another useful Buddhist tool in psychology, I invite you to spend a while focusing intensely on the attached image. Buddhist architectural principles are designed to facilitate the achievement of expanded consciousness simply by looking at them in any orientation, even an asymmetrical one like the arrangement of the two temples as seen from this angle. Similarly, here is a link to a piece of music composed by employing Buddhist architectural principles in musical notation, so that the musical notes literally follow Buddhist geometry when you look at them. The entire soundtrack of the game has evident effect. It was composed by the genius composer Ryu Umemoto, who died almost right after finishing his work, seemingly having completed his magnum opus as a kind of Greek "Aristeia." 😆

(The accompanying video is really fun too, and tells an interesting story.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WqhS6FKgXw

(1/2, continued in a reply.)