Control freak
Control freak is a colloquialism that is usually employed to describe a person obsessed with performing tasks in a way that they perceive as correct. A control freak can become distressed when someone causes a deviation in the way that they prefer to perform tasks.[1] Someone who tries to control how other people perform tasks, while having no good reason for interfering, can also be considered a control freak.[2]
This expression was introduced around the 1960s.[3]
Characteristics
[edit]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.[2]
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
[edit]- 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]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Control freak Definition & Meaning". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
- ^ a b "How to Deal with a Control Freak". Health Essentials. Cleveland Clinic. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ 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