The analogy breaks down if the psychosis is a preliminary step to rebuilding a more effective behavioral repertory. The vase was valuable and esthetically pleasing only in its original configuration, but many behavioral configurations can be acceptable modes of adaptation. Perhaps a better analogy than the Ming vase would be the demolition of old buildings to make way for new. Former adjustments were not working anyway, so little was lost. Kali was the Hindu goddess of fertility who creates out of the bones of the dead.
Spring follows winter, and there can be no new growth without the death of the old.
The same is often true of behavior. We do not have to be in physical danger for catastrophic reorganizations of behavior to occur. Threat does it as well, and threat is not always external. One of the most devastating sources of change comes from a mirror. Each day the reflection that looks back changes slightly, but not enough to exceed our perceptual threshold.