Charles:
Interesting question.
My own personal belief is that everyone who practices bonsai is, somewhere in their being, a real control freak.
Everyone.
Whether we experience it as an overt feeling of power and domination in controlling the destiny of another living being, or whether we feel it some other way, I believe it is in there somewhere. Some believe that bonsai is a cooperative act between two beings, but really the tree has little choice in the matter.
Maybe I'm just a smidge bit cynical, though.
pootsie