It seems many people with bipolar disorder have extraordinary creativity and/or intellect. For example, I was top of my art class since kindergarten, and tied #1 highest in the SAT scores in a high school class of several hundred. (Too bad I flunked out of college due to psychosis... But that is another story)

Anyway, because of this fact, I think many shrinks automatically assume bipolar people are mentally gifted as well as mentally cursed. This is where it comes from.