Education in psychogeriatrics: the leap of the imagination.

In an attempt to bridge the gap between healthy young people in their early 20s and mentally ill old people in their 80s six consecutive classes of final-year medical students of psychogeriatrics were asked to imagine and to record how they thought they might feel in certain fictitious situations which lay nearer to their own experience. They then explored links between the given situations and the feelings which might be experienced by mentally ill elderly people and their carers. The exercise has proved to be a popular and creative learning experience.