About this Site

Wanterfall.com exists for the sole purpose of making available a series of free e-books about human health and wellbeing. The first title, Wanterfall, is about the understanding and healing of the emotions of everyday life. Further titles currently in draft include Notes on Communication, An Introduction to Mental Illness, A Few Self-Help Techniques, Philosophical Musings and Meditation Demystified.

You can read Wanterfall online if you wish, but it is easier to navigate as a single PDF file (227 pages, 840KB, free download). The PDF version includes comprehensive Contents and Index entries, as well as hyperlinked bookmarks for every heading and subheading.

Adobe Reader® for PDF files can also be accessed via the Downloads Page.

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About the book Wanterfall

We all experience emotions – and the experience is not always pleasant. Being sensitive by nature, we are inevitably vulnerable to these feelings. But must we be helpless? What exactly are emotions, anyway? Where do they come from, how many are there, are they any use to us – and, if we don't like their effects, is there any way to get rid of them?

Drawing on a variety of sources including western psychology and eastern philosophy, as well as the experiences of a long and varied medical career, the author describes a simple and practical model which can be used to understand, and potentially to relieve, the emotional distresses of everyday life.

The book is both a subjective exploration of, and a practical guide to dealing with, the emotional aspects of human experience. However, it is not a form of therapy, and the techniques described in it should not be practised during the course of a mental illness. Mental illness requires medical treatment – whereas this book mainly offers mental exercise.

The elements of the model described have always existed, but they are presented here in a way which the author considers potentially useful to a wide audience. A single underlying cause for our many emotions is suggested. Their complex effects on daily life are then discussed in detail, and simple techniques for their exploration and resolution are described.

This book is written for anyone who would like to understand the human mind better – or who would simply like a happier and calmer life. However, it certainly does not guarantee either result. Nor does it pretend to explain life's underlying mysteries – which words cannot, in any case, effectively address.

On the other hand, a better understanding and fuller resolution of emotions allows a clearer view of the mental landscape. That might well lead to a more peaceful and joyful life. But it would be an optional extra – bought with your own hard work.

About the Author

Dr Coates was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1946, and studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He entered General (Child & Family) Practice in 1971, working in various parts of Australia and England before settling in Sydney, Australia in 1977.

His interests in western psychology and eastern philosophy brought him into contact with psychiatrist and thanatologist Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1979, and he subsequently spent a year studying at her training centre in California.

Returning to Sydney in 1981, he spent the next twelve years working in the field of palliative medicine. During those years, he directed new departments of palliative care in two Sydney teaching hospitals, and was a founding vice-president of the Palliative Care Association of NSW.

He also attended patients in a number of hospices, lectured extensively on pain management and grief counselling, and ran a domiciliary palliative care service in suburban Sydney. The ideas on which this book is based gradually took shape during that time, and were further developed during his later work in geriatric community care, also in Sydney.

The first version of the Wanterfall chart was in fact created for a series of inservice lecture-discussions at a Sydney nursing home in 2004. The idea for a book gradually grew from successive revisions of lecture notes written for those sessions.

At the beginning of 2007, Dr Coates decided to close his medical practice in order to devote the majority of his time to writing. The book Wanterfall is the first result of that decision. Various other topics are currently in draft form, and will be made available via wanterfall.com as they are completed.