Objective

Identify the way in which domestic violence was configured as a health problem for Colombian psychiatry between 1964 and 1996.

Materials and Methods

Research with a historical approach exploring documentary collections of the Colombian Journal of Psychiatry in the period studied, identifying 33 relevant articles that were analyzed looking for the way in which intrafamily violence became a problem of interest for the clinical approach to mental health in Colombia.

Results

The vision of the academics of the time allows to understand the constant and circular relationship between these two categories: social violence and family, establishing a primacy in the approach to domestic violence that reflects the concern for mental health and the dynamics that develop in the family.

Discussion

A perspective of the Colombian family and society in the second half of the 20th century was obtained in relation to the progressive problematic configuration of intrafamily violence as a matter to be treated from psychiatry.