In the context of restoring the tension and strategizing created by encountering a mind flayer, which used to be a lot higher when their amnesia caused forgetting maps and discoveries:

The psychic blast of a mind flayer may make you hallucinate, to create short-term tension, and possibly create long-term strategic tension by counting as Intelligence abuse.

However, since mind blasts are a lot less avoidable and harder to strategize around than getting into melee with a mind flayer, it may be better to add these as additional things they can do in melee (but probably not Intelligence abuse, since they already directly drain Intelligence points).