LEWISTON — The University of Southern Maine’s Social and Behavioral Science program will present a lecture by Dr. Ernest Hartmann from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn College, 51 Westminster St., room 170.

A renowned explorer of the nocturnal realms of sleep and dreams, Hartman draws on decades of psychological and biological research in his theory that dreaming is on a continuum of mental functioning from focused waking thought to reverie, daydreaming and fantasy. The process of dream formation, in this contemporary view, is understood as representing emotions in a “Central Image.”

Hartmann will also lead a discussion of his most recent area of exploration: the similarity between the mental processes operative in the creation of dreams and poetry.

This event is open to anyone and is free of charge. Those with an interest, either personally or professionally, with dreaming, psychology or creative writing and the role of image, metaphor and emotion in each are encouraged to attend.

Hartmann is past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. His most recent publications include “The Nature and Functions of Dreaming” (2010) and “Boundaries: A New Way to Look at the World” (2011). Hartmann’s “Another Poet,” his first book of poetry, was also published this year.

For more information, contact professor Jan Hitchcock at [email protected] or 753-6500.