Introduction:

Wives of military personnel in action living on bases located in areas of armed conflict in Colombia before the peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), were first-hand observers of the war, their husbands' participation in the war and the consequences and effects of the combat in which others participated.

Objective:

To offer a hypothesis regarding these women's experience of direct trauma and characterise the dimensions of their experience as observers of the suffering of others.

Methods:

Qualitative study and secondary discourse analysis in intentional snowball sampling of wives of military personnel (officers and chiefs) with whom semi-structured interviews were conducted.

Conclusions:

Direct trauma is not the sole cause of psychosomatic and psychopathological consequences; the experience of constantly observing the suffering and deaths of others also generates a cumulative effect that can affect physical and mental health. This experience is called passive trauma.

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