Since the late 1990s, the setting has become an increasingly common theme in psychoanalytic debate and literature. Previously, the word was absent or used by some psychoanalysts as a simple term without any real conceptualization. The first to make a concept of it was D.W. Winnicott in the 1950’s. It was not until the late 1960’s that the concept was treated as such. This happened first of all in Argentina with José Bleger and other Argentinian authors. From the 1970’s, the concept began to take an increasingly important place in France, mainly thanks to Jean-Luc Donnet and André Green. This text is limited to the early days of the emergence of the concept of the setting. Why was this concept promoted? Why has it become omnipresent in exchanges between analysts? Does it reflect a deepening of the problems of psychoanalytic treatment, or is it in the service of profound changes in technique?