The dichotomy of social and individualistic tendencies is a source of conflict within all humans and throughout history. Psychologically healthy people desire to be in the company of other people, while in other cases they want to isolate themselves from the world and look inward. These two inclinations are kept in balance by leading a normal life without any extreme emotional stimulation. However, when the psyche experiences trauma, this balance can be upset and people may find themselves looking only inward and completely shutting themselves out from the rest of the world. This self-imposed exile of humanity is something that the ancient Greeks understood and often explored in their mythology. A common trend in Greek mythology was to use self-imposed exile as a defense mechanism and form of punishment, as seen in the myths of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Euripides' Medea. The myth of Oedipus Rex includes self-exile as a path for Oedipus. to face the fate he suffered and worked his whole life to avoid. At the end of the play Oedipus Rex, Oedipus claws out his eyes because he realizes that he has fulfilled a prophecy told to him at the beginning of the play that he would kill his father and marry his mother. He was so determined not to fulfill this horrible prediction that when he was told that the man he thought was his father was dead, he cried out: Ha! Ha! O dear Jocasta, why should we look towards the Pythian hearth? Why should we look at the birds calling above us? They prophesied that I would have to kill my father! But he is dead and hidden deep within his ear, and here I stand, he who never lifted his hand to his spear, unless he died of desire for me, and so I am his murderer. But middle of paper...themselves they had experienced and in the end neither achieved anything except alienation from the rest of their respective worlds. In both Oedipus Rex, Sophocles and Medea, by Euripides, the idea of ​​voluntary exile is explored in depth. The reason for this motive is that when faced with great difficulties and psychological damage like that of Oedipus and Medea, the normal human response is to try to introvert and withdraw from the world that has caused him problems . This tendency, although it is a normal psychological defense mechanism, is not healthy because it violates the relationship that all individuals must maintain in their actions between individual stimulation and social stimulation. Only by achieving a balance between these two states of being can one truly achieve healthy emotional stability and a happiness that neither Medea nor Oedipus can ever have..