What anorexic and bulimic patients have to tell: the analysis of patterns of unconscious conflict expressed in stories about everyday events

The development of European associations for counselling and psychotherapy raises questions about the challenge of producing pan-European statements of professional ethics. This article explores the range of ethical predispositions associated with different cultures to be found in Europe before examining how the European Association for Counselling and European Association for Psychotherapy have responded to this diversity. Recently produced ethical statements are examined in some detail. Both are found to be compatible with some of the culturally endorsed ethical predispositions to the exclusion of others. the article concludes by suggesting some of the issues that need to be considered in constructing a truly European ethic for counselling and psychotherapy.