The first time I met Belial he attacked me in my sleep, to see if I was capable of summoning up some whoop-ass on his demons… I’m certain of course that he carefully calibrated it so I stood a chance of winning (and even then it was touch-and-go, and I needed a little help from the goddess Isis) but to me that’s like joining any group, you tend to get tested to see if you fit in.
I think so long as we remember we’re not dealing with humans, who have a lot of programming of various kinds, including the biological survival instincts that served our ancestors and kept them alive, then working with these spirits is a rewarding chance to meet new forms of conciousness, and attempt to begin understanding them (though I doubt it;s ever truly possible).
Fwiw I shared my current state of understanding on “the psychology of demons” a while ago, nothing’s come up to “debunk” or invalidate any of it since I posted it, though of course I’m not claiming to have “The Truth™” or anything of that nature - this is just what I’ve found so far, and remains a work in progress: