Control freak
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Control freak is a colloquialism for a person who feels a psychological need to constantly be in charge of things and people around them. A control freak can become distressed when they feel things are going out of control.[1] The feel of the need to control is often attributed to the underlying fear of losing control over their lives.[2]
This expression was introduced around the 1960s and it is not a clinical one.[3]
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.[1]
Control freaks are often insecure and perfectionists.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7] As Steve Wozniak, his long-term collaborator and occasional critic, put it: "Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there".[8]
- 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.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ 5 Signs That You Are Dealing With a Control Freak
- ↑ Kristin Glaser, in The Radical Therapist (Penguin 1974) p. 246
- ↑ Michelle N. Lafrance, Women and Depression (2009) p. 89
- ↑ Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 208
- ↑ David Stafford & Liz Hodgkinson, Codependency (London 1995) p. 131
- ↑ Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (2011) p. 564 and p. 513
- ↑ Quoted in Isaacson, p. 497
- ↑ Queen Victoria's Children BBC2 January 2013