Alma Z. Menn

A. C. S. W., associate in research at the MRI. Researcher, administrator and director of the Soteria Project, an alternative to hospitalization for schizophrenics; a project funded by the National Institute for Mental Health Centers for Studies of Schizophrenia, (NIMH) in Bethesda. Soteria House opened in May 1971 (photo beside), followed by the opening of a second facility called Emanon (“no name” spelled backwards).

Mauro Mariotti: When I arrived in Palo Alto in a dilapidated hotel on University Avenue, the Cardinal hotel, Alma Menn proposed that I go and help the staff of the Soteria house project, a multi-million dollar project financed by the democratic government and subsequently closed due to the change of government with consequent change in the destination of the funds. I replied that I didn’t speak English well enough to be able to interact with the kids (I would later found various centers, similar in principle, in Italy). I still remember her look, somewhere between benevolent and irritated, as she replied “They speak schizophrenic, not English, you’ll see, you’ll succeed!”