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.^[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]

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]

• Steve Jobs — 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 — 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]