Refers to the quality of being identified with the self, being seen as "a part of me." Usually used in reference to
psychopathology, but applicable to any behavior or physical condition. For example, people with
anorexia nervosa don't generally go to a
psychologist and say "doc, you've got to help me! I can't eat and I want to exercise all the time and it's really messing me up!" More often they're dragged in by concerned family or friends, and say "don't meddle in my business! I'm doing what I want to with my body." The life-threatening nature of the condition gives us a mandate to attempt to change them regardless, but it's almost impossible until you convince the subject that their actions are unhealthy and that they should begin to see them as undesirable. Other conditions that are often ego-syntonic are
drug abuse or
addiction and all the
DSM axis II disorders (which describe broad categories that are more like personality flaws, such as severe
narcissism and generalized
flattened affect).
The opposite of an ego-syntonic condition is an
ego-dystonic one, although the quality is really a
continuum rather than a strict
dichotomy.