For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area …
Content warning Chapter 8
"[stuff about how names carry associations such as facts or identity among the named and those who know that name] Whereas 'biologist' --- that's a function, a subset of a full identity". Not if you did it right, like Ghost Bird, and you were totally and wholly your job to begin with. "If you can be your function, then the theory is that these associations narrow or close down, and that closes down the pathways into personality. Perhaps.
— Authority (The Southern Reach Trilogy) by Jeff VanderMeer (Page 113)
Hm, this looks important. The biologist seems like the only one that this applies to.
Control is doing something similar to himself. He is only allowing himself to become Josh (?) when he's at home. He's function is to be in control, but he doesn't seem to be doing too good on that front.