Yevamot 13: Arguing About Arguing; Cutting

A brief note about Yevamot 13b: our daf ends with an argument between Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan regarding arguments.  How are we meant to understand a verse?  Can a verse hold more than one meaning?  Must it always make reference to its context first and foremost?

Part of this argument regards verses from Masechtot Megilla.  Don't we learn that Jews are not supposed to cut ourselves off from each other; we should act as one?  Or, perhaps we are truly referring to "cutting oneself", which is strictly prohibited.  It seems that cutting as a form of mourning was an understood practice.

Both of these ideas are important to me.  First, that there is a stream of thought within Jewish text that suggests that we can speak with one voice as Jews.  Hard to imagine that Jews today would do what Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai did: marry each other and use each others' vessels.  Both of those acts assume that the accepted practices regarding forbidden relationships and ritual purity can be set aside.  

Secondly, the prohibition against cutting oneself is fascinating.  Cutting is a common practice in today's youth who are diagnosed with depression.  Even only one generation ago, cutting was considered rare and bizarre behaviour that accompanied only severe forms of mental illness.  Could cutting be a practice that predates any 'modern' psychological theory regarding teenage angst, embodiment, or the connections between physical and emotional pain?  Perhaps deep longing and anguish has often been expressed through cutting behaviours and those behaviours were ritualized in ancient religious thought.