This presentation challenges the prevailing logic and ethics of residential treatment for serious mental illness (SMI), which often rely on theoretically incongruent, behaviorally driven treatment models that neglect the person’s unconscious life. Tracing the socio-historical lineage of residential treatment, Dr. Daniel Garcia argues that current approaches presuppose a human subject void of a symbolic dimension, seeking instead to normalize behavior without avowing the unconscious as a cause of one’s subjective position. This presentation advances the notion that the therapeutic task of residential treatment is not merely symptom reduction, but the creation and avowal of an unconscious structured by speech. Through clinical theory and a detailed case example, the presentation outlines how The MendCenter intervenes as symbolic institution—allowing patients to metaphorize psychotic phenomena and restructure their psychic positioning in relation to others, language, and lawfulness. Ultimately, the presentation proposes a new ethical orientation for residential care: one that prioritizes symbolic mediation over behavioral mastery and values the institutional function of listening to what the symptom says.
Educational Objectives
At the conclusion of this program, attendees will be able to:
Dr. Garcia is a bilingual, licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst, founder and CEO of The MendCenter- a residential treatment
facility dedicated to the treatment of serious mental illness via Lacanian
Psychoanalysis. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from University of the Incarnate
Word, Harvard University, and The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Garcia received his doctoral degree
from the University of Texas at Austin,
completed his pre- doctoral psychology internship at Harvard Medical School/ The Cambridge Health Alliance, and completed his postdoctoral
fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine’s Menninger Clinic. His research and
clinical focus is the psychoanalytic treatment of chronic and severe mental
illness. Dr. Garcia is an analyst of The Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis in
Berkley, California.
Target Audience
This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of psychiatrists in clinical practice.
Planners and Faculty
Daniel Garcia, PhD, MTS
Mr. Garcia has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.
Accreditation Statement
The MendCenter is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The MendCenter designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest
The MendCenter does not accept financial support from ineligible companies for CME activities.
Method of Participation
Physicians must attend the live activity and complete a Post Activity Learning Assessment Tool and Credit Application form to receive a Credit Certificate.
Estimated Time to Complete
1.0 hour, exclusive of breaks