During the political campaigning blitz that characterized the summer of 2008, Republican candidate John McCain’s top economic adviser, Phil Gramm, loosely alluded to the psychological implications of financial downturn—and garnered considerable media criticism—when he characterized the volatile economic situation as merely "a mental recession” and lamented that America had become "a nation of whiners.” The Obama camp passionately countered, "The American people know that our economic problems aren’t just in their heads. They don’t need psychological relief—they need real relief.” The results of the election, in part a referendum on economic reform, shattered Gramm’s economic opinions in favor of Obama’s.

The past year has lain to rest most doubts like Gramm’s of actual economic downturn. Yet, as recent international news suggests, when we tune out the obfuscating undercurrents of combating political agendas, shards of truth may still linger from the McCain camp’s declaration of a "mental recession."

According to this CNN report, workplace stress related to the global economic crisis may be at the root of the string of suicides that has taken place at France Telecom over the past two years. Since early 2008, 37 employees of the telecommunications giant have attempted or committed suicide. The most recent addition to the morbid list was a 51-year-old father, who plunged from a bridge last week and allegedly cited the traumatic climate at his workplace as the reason behind his decision.

Labor unions have echoed his accusation, asserting that dismal working conditions and restructuring—responses to economic downturn—have engendered a dangerously stressful atmosphere for Telecom employees, and Patricia Pegg Jones from the Work Foundation does not see the Telecom phenomenon as unique. As a result of the recession, she says, workers are experiencing higher stress levels and increased pressure due to "more uncertainty and a lack of security.” Furthermore, Pegg Jones points to dichotomous evidence that workers with less control over their jobs are increasingly likely to fall ill and that, still, more workers are succumbing to "presenteeism,” or always going to work, even when unwell.

Perhaps the Obama administration should take a cue from accounts of this sort and consider the effects of an unrestrained invisible hand not only on American workers’ pocketbooks, but on their collective psyche as well. In fact, "psychological relief” may be exactly what’s in order.