After an editorial note, a paper by Bolko & Merini on the frame of psychoanalytic therapy (originally published in issue no. 2/1988 of Psicoterapia e Scienze Umane) is reprinted. Reflections on this aspect are useful especially today when, after the COVID-19 pandemic, on-line therapy has become widespread and this "new" therapeutic setting is often discussed. After having defined the psychoanalytic frame as the setting and the time of therapy, some conceptualizations on this concept that have been put forward by several authors, beginning with Freud, are discussed, namely Balint, Bergeret, Bion, Bleger, Eissler, Galli, Greenacre, Greenson, Heimann, Macalpine, Meltzer, Stone, Menninger, Modell, Rycroft, Thomä & Kächele, Winnicott, etc. It is argued that while originally the psychoanalytic frame was conceived as the background of therapy, with little influence of the psychoanalytic process, since the 1950s it changed its meaning and has become a therapeutic agent in itself, important especially in severe psychopathologies.
Keywords: Psychoanalytic frame; Ground rules of psychoanalytic treatment; Theory of psychoanalytic technique; History of psychoanalytic concepts; Psychoanalytic process