Cutting, as American teenagers know it, broke into public consciousness in the late 1970s and '80s as a mental health behavior then dubbed “the new anorexia.”

        Now, it's facing increased scrutiny in Greater Cincinnati. Doctors and therapists are especially alarmed about the rising number of teens mutilating themselves.

        Even celebrities such as the late Princess Diana and actor Johnny Depp have told of their struggles with self-injury.

        “What you're getting is an epidemic of disclosure,” says Steven Levenkron, a New York psychotherapist and expert on self-mutilation.

        Self-injury, however, has been around in one form or another for centuries.

        Dr. Armando Favazza, a well-known psychiatry professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and an expert on self-mutilation and culture, divides the behavior into two types.

        One is culturally sanctioned self-mutilation, some types of which date back thousands of years. In his book Bodies Under Siege, Dr. Favazza explores rituals that people believe have healing powers or provide wisdom.

        Finger amputation is an ancient form of ritual mutilation, and it continues today. In one custom in the New Guinea highlands, women cut off the their fingertips in mourning for deceased male relatives.

        The other type, Dr. Favazza says, is deviant self-mutilation of the mentally ill, for whom cutting, hair pulling, biting and other forms of self-harm provide temporary relief from symptoms of anxiety and desperation.

        Dr. Favazza says about 1,500 per 100,000 Americans self-mutilate today.

        “People who are cutting are more likely to be picked up now,” he says. “It may be that the behavior itself is not as stigmatized.”

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