{{Short description|Colloquialism for a person obsessed with control}} {{redirect|Control Freak}}
'''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.<ref name="Cleveland">{{cite web |title=How to Deal with a Control Freak |url=https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-deal-with-a-control-freak/ |website=Health Essentials |date=5 May 2020 |publisher=Cleveland Clinic |access-date=5 May 2020}}</ref> The feel of the need to control is often attributed to the underlying fear of losing control over their lives.<ref>[https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-is-2020/201604/5-signs-that-you-are-dealing-with-a-control-freak 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''' {{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''' {{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>
==See also== {{columns-list|colwidth=18em| * Authoritarian personality * Control (management) * Micromanagement * Nanny state * Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder * Obsessive love * Pedant }}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Control Freak}} Category:Slang Category:English phrases Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Power (social and political) Category:Control (social and political)