ABSTRACT
It has been conjectured that some of Dr. Erickson's tasks were vague, ambiguous, metaphoric, symbolic and/or served a projective function. Anecdotal research on a standardized ambiguous function assignment (task) (Lankton & Lankton, 1986) given to over 30 patients is presented. In most cases the behavioral and cognitive responses were quite different, but at times there were some common responses. It is conjectured that some of Dr. Erickson's “ambiguous” tasks had a not so ambiguous intent. A structure is provided to differentiate between “ambiguous” tasks and “diagnostic” tasks.
