For the past decade or more, researchers have found significant correlations between creative achievement and symptoms of mood disorders, especially bipolar disorder. While these findings have been intriguing, there has been little or no attempt at explanation, on a psychological level, for these correlations. This article sets forth a model for describing the experience of mania in the vocabulary of psychoanalytic developmental theory: psychological dedifferentiation, which is a restitutive response to loss and can be, at the same time, a cognitive substrate for creative mental activity. Case material from (a) a bipolar patient in psychotherapy, (b) a 2nd bipolar patient's psychological testing protocol, and (c) the work of a bipolar artist are presented in support of the link between manic dedifferentiation and creativity.