Rebellion is an emotionally healthy response to irrational authority, wherever it occurs. It is healthy for the individual, and at least potentially healthy for the order which, unquestioned, could be sustained in many cases indefinitely.
People who have to learn to say no, No, NO, though, often develop the HABIT of rebellion.
Here is what I will suggest: not infrequently, self defeating behavior amounts to one part of the psyche rebelling against another. One part–let us call it the Superego, even though I am no Freudian–says “You have to do this because x, y, and z.” And it makes sense. The voice is speaking reason.
But with respect to internal emotions, it SOUNDS like the voice of a hated adult voice, and some part of the wounded child rebels by rejecting it, by saying no, by trying to build space in a very foolish way, but only way it knows.
I think this is true, for some people, at some times.