Thanks for that explanation.

Let me explain where I'm coming from with dreams. I believe that dreams are communications from the unconscious to the conscious mind. Your conscious mind, or "ego" as psychologists call it, contains your conscious ideas about yourself, your conscious identity. Your ego consists of your conscious beliefs about how you should act, what you like or dislike, and basically who you are.

But there is more to us than the ego. There is the unconscious, which can contain perspectives almost diametrically opposed to the ego. It can contain ideas and feelings that need to be integrated into your ego for the highest degree of health.

Let me also explain my beliefs about formative years. It seems like your formative years were chaotic and inconsistent, which must have affected you deeply. My belief is that people develop defense mechanisms to survive and get through developmental stages when the necessary caretaking isn't there. For instance, you may have developed a really tough attitude of self-sufficiency because you were lacking any consistent mothering.

So now that you explain more about your personality, one possible interpretation of your dream is that these controlling leaders represent your ego which includes your defense mechanisms and your tough attitude. But some deeper part of your psyche feels that these attitudes are not genuine to yourself. Your dream is exploring how you can escape this controlling attitude.

Because the dream is coming from your unconscious, its perspective may seem unfamiliar to you. It's worth sitting with the dream for a while and seeing if anything resonates. Ultimately it is the dreamer who decides what interpretations fit.