Are We Facing an Epidemic of Self-Injury?

By JOAN JACOBS BRUMBERG

"When I was cutting myself," Natalie told me in a matter-of-fact way, "I wore big bracelets, and because I like to sew, I had lots of fabric in my room which I tied in bands around my wrists." Over a lengthy lunch at the Moosewood Restaurant, in Ithaca, N.Y., the articulate 18-year-old from an affluent suburb spoke confidently...