Control freak - wikipedia Control freak For the Teen Titans supervillain, see Control Freak ( villain ). In psychology - related slang, the term control freak describes an individual who attempts to undermine other people based on how one dictates how everything is done around them. The phrase was first used in the 1970s, an era when stress was laid on the principle of ' doing one 's own thing ' and letting others do the same. Contents 1 Personality psychology 1.1 Vulnerability 2 In management 3 In history 3.1 Wellington v. Napoleon 3.2 Queen Victoria 3.3 Steve Jobs and closed systems 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading Personality psychology See also : Abusive power and control In the study of personality psychology, certain personality disorders display characteristics involving the need to gain compliance or control over others : Those with antisocial personality disorder tend to display a glibness and grandiose sense of self - worth. Due to their shallow affect and lack of remorse or empathy, they are well suited to con and / or manipulate others into complying with their wishes. Those with histrionic personality disorder need to be the center of attention, and in turn, draw people in so they may use ( and eventually dispose of ) their relationship. Those with narcissistic personality disorder have an inflated self - importance, hypersensitivity to criticism and a sense of entitlement that compels them to persuade others to comply with their requests. To maintain their self - esteem, and protect their vulnerable selves, narcissists need to control others ' behavior -- particularly that of their children seen as extensions of themselves. Vulnerability See also : True self and false self Control freaks are often perfectionists defending themselves against their own inner vulnerabilities in the belief that if they are not in total control they risk exposing themselves once more to childhood angst. Such persons manipulate and pressure others to change so as to avoid having to change themselves, and use power over others to escape an inner emptiness. When a control freak 's pattern is broken, the controller is left with a terrible feeling of powerlessness but feeling their pain and fear brings them back to themselves. Control freaks appear to have some similarities to codependents, in the sense that the latters ' fear of abandonment leads to attempts to control those they are dependent on. Recovery for them entails recognising that being a control freak helped paradoxically preserve codependency itself. In terms of personality - type theory, control freaks are very much the Type A personality, driven by the need to dominate and control. An obsessive need to control others is also associated with antisocial personality disorder. In management In the corporate world, control freaks tend to publicly admonish their inferiors, especially during meetings. More positively, the term can also refer to someone with a limited number of things that they want done a specific way ; professor of clinical psychology Les Parrott wrote that `` Control Freaks are people who care more than you do about something and wo n't stop at being pushy to get their way ''. There may be a fine line between being a detail - oriented manager, who likes to have things done ' right ', and being a ( destructive ) control freak. Control freaks are usually a cause of micromanagement. In some cases, the control freak sees their constant intervention as beneficial or even necessary. This can be caused by feelings of separation or departure from a loved one ; or by the belief that others are incapable of handling matters properly, or the fear that things will go wrong if they do not attend to every detail. In other cases, they may simply enjoy the feeling of power it gives them so much that they automatically try to gain control of everything and everyone around them. In history Wellington v. Napoleon Wellington as military commander was undoubtedly a hands - on micromanager, trusting his subordinates as little as possible, and showing many of the characteristics of the modern day control freak. In 1811 he wrote that `` I am obliged to be everywhere and if absent from any operation, something goes wrong... success can only be attained by attention to the most minute details ''. By contrast, Napoleon gave his marshals much more tactical freedom. At the critical meeting of the two generals at the Battle of Waterloo -- where Wellington 's close supervision contrasted strongly with the effective delegation of operational management by Napoleon to Marshall Ney -- it was at least arguably Wellington 's control mania that played the decisive role in the Allied victory, justifying his claim the following day that `` I do n't think it would have been done if I had not been there ''. 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. Steve Jobs and closed systems 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. As Steve Wozniak, his long - term collaborator and occasional critic, put it : `` Apple gets you into their playpen and keeps you there. The triumph of the Windows PC over the Mac was a blow for that philosophy, a situation that was then reversed by the successes of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad -- only for the Android challenge to reopen the debate. '' See also Authoritarian personality Control ( management ) Empire building Freak Full - spectrum dominance Megalomania Micromanagement Mind control Narcissism Narcissism in the workplace Narcissistic leadership Narcissistic supply Obsessive -- compulsive personality disorder Psychopathy in the workplace Social control Toxic leader Toxic workplace Workplace bullying Workplace incivility References Jump up ^ `` the definition of control freak ''. Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2018. Jump up ^ Kristin Glaser, in The Radical Therapist ( Penguin 1974 ) p. 246 Jump up ^ Larsen, Randy J., and David M. Buss. Personality Psychology : Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature. New York : McGraw - Hill Higher Education, 2010. Print. Jump up ^ Rappoport, Alan, Ph. D. Co-Narcissism : How We Adapt to Narcissism. The Therapist, 2005 Archived 2015 - 08 - 11 at the Wayback Machine... Jump up ^ Michelle N. Lafrance, Women and Depression ( 2009 ) p. 89 Jump up ^ Art Horn, Face It ( 2004 ) p. 53 Jump up ^ Robin Skynner / John Cleese, Families and how to survive them ( London 1994 ) p. 208 Jump up ^ Robert Bly and Marion Woodman, The Maiden King ( Dorset 1999 ) p. 141 Jump up ^ Patricia Evans, Controlling People ( Avon 2002 ) p. 129 and p. 274 Jump up ^ David Stafford & Liz Hodgkinson, Codependency ( London 1995 ) p. 131 Jump up ^ Deb M., in Stepping Stones to Recovery from Codependency ( 1993 ) p. 61 Jump up ^ Andrew Holmes / Dan Wilson, Pains in the Office ( 2004 ) p. 56 Jump up ^ Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door ( 2005 ) p. 47 Jump up ^ Andrew Buck -- Meeting Behaviors : The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Archived 2010 - 06 - 10 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Parrot, Les ( 2001 ). The Control Freak. Carol Stream : Tyndale House Publishers. ISBN 0 - 8423 - 3793 - 8. Jump up ^ Gillian Tett, Fool 's Gold ( London 2009 ) p. 165 Jump up ^ Richard Holmes, Wellington : The Iron Duke ( London 2003 ) p. 178 and p. 169 Jump up ^ Quoted in Michael Glover, Wellington as Military Commander ( London 1968 ) p. 205 Jump up ^ Jac Weller, Wellington at Waterloo ( London 1967 ) p. 21 Jump up ^ James Marshall - Cornwall, Napoleon as Military Commander ( London 1967 ) p. 278 Jump up ^ Quoted in Glover, p. 204 Jump up ^ Queen Victoria 's Children BBC2 January 2013 Jump up ^ Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs ( 2011 ) p. 564 and p. 513 Jump up ^ Quoted in Isaacson, p. 497 Jump up ^ Isaacson, p. 513 and p. 497 Further reading E.A. Deuble & A. Bradley, It Has A Name ! : How To Keep Control Freaks & Other Unhealthy Narcissists From Ruining Your Life ( 2010 ) Mary L. Berg, The Joy of Being a Control Freak ( 2011 ) Narcissism Types Collective Egomania Flying monkeys Healthy Malignant Megalomania Narcissistic personality disorder Spiritual Workplace Characteristics Betrayal Boasting Egocentrism Egotism Empathy ( lack of ) Envy Entitlement ( exaggerated sense of ) Fantasy Grandiosity Hubris Magical thinking Manipulative Narcissistic abuse Narcissistic elation Narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury Narcissistic mortification Narcissistic supply Narcissistic withdrawal Perfectionism Self - esteem Self - righteousness Shamelessness Superficial charm Superiority complex True self and false self Vanity Defences Denial Idealization and devaluation Distortion Projection Splitting Cultural phenomena Control freak Don Juanism Dorian Gray syndrome My way or the highway Selfie Related articles Codependency Counterdependency Dark triad Ego ideal Egomania ( film ) Empire - building God complex History of narcissism Messiah complex Micromanagement Narcissism of small differences Narcissistic leadership Narcissistic parent Narcissistic Personality Inventory Narcissus ( mythology ) On Narcissism ( Freud essay ) Sam Vaknin Self - love Self - serving bias Spoiled child The Culture of Narcissism ( Lasch book ) Workplace bullying Bullying Types Abusive supervision Cyberbullying Disability bullying Gay bashing Hazing Military bullying Mobbing Parental bullying of children Passive aggression Peer victimization Prison bullying Rankism Relational aggression School bullying Sexual bullying Workplace bullying ( Academia Higher education Information technology Legal aspects Legal profession Medicine Nursing Teaching Toxic leader ) Elements Betrayal Blacklisting Bullying and emotional intelligence Bullying culture Character assassination Control Coercion Climate of fear Defamation Destabilisation Discrediting Embarrassment False accusation Gaslighting Gossip Harassment Humiliation Incivility Innuendo Insult Intimidation Isolation Kiss up kick down Mind games Moving the goalposts Nagging Name calling Personal attacks Psychological abuse Physical abuse Rudeness Sarcasm School pranks Setting up to fail Silent treatment Smear campaign Social exclusion Social undermining Taunting Teasing Whispering campaign Workplace incivility Verbal abuse Yelling Organizations Act Against Bullying Ditch the Label Bullying UK It Gets Better Project Kidscape GRIN Campaign Jer 's Vision Activists and academics Andrea Adams Louise Burfitt - Dons Tim Field SuEllen Fried Liam Hackett Heinz Leymann Gary Namie Kenneth Westhues Actions Anti-Bullying Day Anti-Bullying Week International STAND UP to Bullying Day Anti-bullying legislation International Day of Pink Notable suicides ( List ) Kelly Yeomans ( 1997 ) Dawn - Marie Wesley ( 2000 ) Nicola Ann Raphael ( 2001 ) Ryan Halligan ( 2003 ) Megan Meier ( 2006 ) Phoebe Prince ( 2010 ) Tyler Clementi ( 2010 ) Jamey Rodemeyer ( 2011 ) Jamie Hubley ( 2011 ) Kenneth Weishuhn ( 2012 ) Audrie Pott ( 2012 ) Amanda Todd ( 2012 ) Jadin Bell ( 2013 ) Rehtaeh Parsons ( 2013 ) Murder -- suicides ( incidents ) Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold ( Columbine, 1999 ) Jeff Weise ( Red Lake, 2005 ) Elliot Rodger ( Isla Vista, 2014 ) Related topics Control freak Complex post-traumatic stress disorder Dehumanization Depression Emotional blackmail Just - world hypothesis Machiavellianism in the workplace Narcissism in the workplace Personal boundaries Personality disorders Psychological manipulation Psychological projection Psychological trauma Psychopathy in the workplace Scapegoating Self - esteem Social dominance orientation Suicide among LGBT youth Sycophancy Victim blaming Victim playing Victimisation Whistleblowing Youth empowerment Elements Evolving capacities Free - range parenting Intergenerational equity Leaving the nest Student voice Youth - adult partnership Youth mainstreaming Youth rights Youth voice Types Community youth development Anarchistic free school Democratic free school Positive youth development Student activism Student - centered learning Student rights Student voice Youth activism Youth council Youth court Youth engagement Youth leadership Youth - led media Youth movement Youth participation Youth philanthropy Youth service Youth suffrage Youth vote Barriers Adultcentrism Adultism Age restrictions Ageism Control freak Fear of youth ( ephebiphobia ) Eleutherophobia Fear of children ( pediaphobia ) Gerontocracy Grounding Helicopter parent Infantilization Intrusiveness Narcissism Parental respect School - to - prison pipeline Vicariousness Related articles Beatnik Beat Generation Counterculture of the 1960s Defense of infancy Hippies Hungry generation International Youth Year UK underground Index of youth rights - related articles Aspects of workplaces Topics Absenteeism Abusive supervision Aggression Bullying Conflict Control freak Counterproductive behaviour Coworker backstabbing Culture of fear Cyber-aggression Democracy Deviance Discrimination Diversity Divide and rule Emotions Employee engagement Employee monitoring Employee morale Employee silence Employee surveys Empowerment Evaluation Feminisation Fit in or fuck off Friendship Gender inequality Gossip Happiness Harassment Health surveillance Humor Incivility Intervention Jargon Kick the cat Kiss up kick down Listening Machiavellianism Micromanagement Mobbing Narcissism Office politics Performance appraisal Personality clash Phobia Positive psychology Privacy Probation Profanity Psychopathy Queen bee syndrome Rat race Relationships Revenge Role conflict Romance Sabotage Safety and health Spirituality Staff turnover Strategy Stress Toxic workplace Training Undermining Violence Wellness Work -- family conflict Workload See also Corporation Employment Factory Job Office Organization Whistleblower Templates Aspects of corporations Aspects of jobs Aspects of occupations Aspects of organizations Employment Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Control_freak&oldid=844724239 '' Categories : Slang Narcissism Bullying Workplace bullying English phrases Pejorative terms for people Psychological abuse Workplace Control ( social and political ) Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Afrikaans Deutsch 日本 語 Русский Српски / srpski Svenska 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 6 June 2018, at 18 : 27. 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Question: word for someone who needs to be in control
Answer: control freak