There used to be something in the 60s called 'believing one's own publicity.' It was scorned. It meant that people took the praise that was heaped upon them, and they actually thought it was true, and they measured themselves by that praise. It never occurred to them that sometimes people just say things for their own benefit, or that, perhaps, the praise wasn't true.

I've come across this where there are publications that publishes the most unpublishable works, and when one points out the errors, one is met with, "36 people said it was good," and then you go and look at the work of those 36 people, and, um, well, one can understand why they thought something was good when it was not.

I have never taken any fanmail seriously, and through the years I've received a lot of it.