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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.cite-ref-cleveland-1-0[1] The feel of the need to control is often attributed to the underlying fear of losing control over their lives.cite-ref-2[2]

This expression was introduced around the 1960s and it is not a clinical one.cite-ref-3[3]

• Characteristics

• Examples

• See also

• References

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.cite-ref-cleveland-1-1[1]

Control freaks are often insecure and perfectionists.cite-ref-4[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.cite-ref-5[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.cite-ref-6[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.cite-ref-7[7] As Steve Wozniak, his long-term collaborator and occasional critic, put it: "Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there".cite-ref-8[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.cite-ref-9[9]

• Authoritarian personality

• Control (management)

• Micromanagement

• Nanny state

• Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder

• Obsessive love

• Pedant

cite-note-cleveland-11. ↑ "How to Deal with a Control Freak". Health Essentials. Cleveland Clinic. 5 May 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.

cite-note-22. ↑ 5 Signs That You Are Dealing With a Control Freak

cite-note-33. ↑ Kristin Glaser, in The Radical Therapist (Penguin 1974) p. 246

cite-note-44. ↑ Michelle N. Lafrance, Women and Depression (2009) p. 89

cite-note-55. ↑ Robin Skynner/John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 208

cite-note-66. ↑ David Stafford & Liz Hodgkinson, Codependency (London 1995) p. 131

cite-note-77. ↑ Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (2011) p. 564 and p. 513

cite-note-88. ↑ Quoted in Isaacson, p. 497

cite-note-99. ↑ Queen Victoria's Children BBC2 January 2013