Many years ago, R. D. Laing pointed out that if one's society or environment was off-kilter (this is my own phrasing based on memory), then what looks like psychotic behavior is actually an attempt to communicate and overcome that distress--to work through the problem.

I'm not endorsing Laing particularly, but I think his perspective is helpful in the homeostasis-allostasis argument.

If you look at an individual's situation solely in terms of the person's organism, then certain kinds of disruptive behavior that seem irrational may in fact be allostatic attempts to adapt to the problem.

But if you look at the individual as a part of a larger organism (family, society, culture, etc.), then this disruptive behavior may be an attempt to regain balance (homeostasis) with the environment, by transforming the world outside the individual.

At any rate, I think the model of balance as achieving a set point (like a pair of scales with equal weights on each side) is too confining. Balance is dynamic, like a gyroscope or a top that stays upright because it is in motion. The goal of two kids on a seesaw is not for both to remain frozen in position suspended above the ground.

Play, which necessitates an imbalance, is a way to achieve a sense of balance.