Control freak

Control freak is a colloquialism that is usually employed to describe a person who feel a psychological need to be in charge of things and people around them. A control freak can become distressed when they feel things are going out of control.<ref name="Cleveland">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The feel of the need to control is often attributed to the underlying fear of losing control over their lives.<ref>5 Signs That You Are Dealing With a Control Freak</ref>

This expression was introduced around the 1960s and it is not a clinical one.<ref>Kristin Glaser, in The Radical Therapist (Penguin 1974) p. 246</ref>

Characteristics

Control freaks tend to have a psychological need to be in charge of things and people – even circumstances that cannot be controlled. The need for control, in extreme cases, stems from deeper psychological issues such as obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), anxiety disorders, or personality disorders.<ref name="Cleveland"/>

Control freaks are often insecure and perfectionists.<ref>Michelle N. Lafrance, Women and Depression (2009) p. 89</ref> Additionally, they may even manipulate or pressure others to change to avoid having to change themselves. They may have had an overbearing mother or father.<ref>Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 208</ref> Furthermore, control freaks sometimes have similarities to codependents, in the sense that the latter's fear of abandonment leads to attempts to control those they are dependent on.<ref>David Stafford & Liz Hodgkinson, Codependency (London 1995) p. 131</ref>

Examples

• Steve Jobs Template:Emdash Steve Jobs was a perfectionist who favored the closed system of control over all aspects of a product from start to finish — what he termed the integrated over the fragmented approach.<ref>Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (2011) p. 564 and p. 513</ref> As Steve Wozniak, his long-term collaborator and occasional critic, put it: "Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there".<ref>Quoted in Isaacson, p. 497</ref>
• Queen Victoria Template:Emdash A series of three documentary programs on BBC2 in the UK in January 2013 called Queen Victoria's Children argued that Queen Victoria was a pathological control freak by the way she controlled the welfare of all her children.<ref>Queen Victoria's Children BBC2 January 2013</ref>