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Yikes. So much to respond to.
Cynthetiq- I agree with you about the lows/highs thing, but there's a difference between people suffering from MDD (major depressive disorder) in which there ARE no highs, or any highs they might experience are seriously dampened; and run-of-the-mill malaise. I don't think the normal upset and sadness people experience about life ought to be eradicated, but the irrational and generally disproportionate negative affect that depressed people experienced is not the same thing. (Speaking from experience - being sad and even depressed about my brother dying is a normal process and I wouldn't want to lessen it in any way; crying every day for 3 weeks because I think I'm a failure despite all evidence to the contrary and I don't enjoy anything and see no way out and want to crawl into a hole and never come out is not something I ever want to go through again.)
This correlation thing -
are manic people more likely to be creative than the general population,
or
are creative people more likely than the general population to suffer from manic depression?
It is a critical distinction. Are depressed people creative because they're depressed (and therefore trying to express that emotion in some artistic way), or are creative people depressed because they're creative (and perhaps alienated because they can't express their vision to other people?)?
If it's the first, then there's some argument for leaving depression untreated if the person feels it's going to stifle their creative expression; however, if it's the second case, then treating the depression doesn't stifle the creativity, in fact it frees up the person to express themselves better.
We all assume that Van Gogh or Beethoven were creative because they were tortured. They produced fantastic things out of their pain and anguish; but who knows what they could have created out of sheer joy?
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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