i just re-read maureen mchugh's "in the country of the blind" (short story, in her wiscon book and also in _after the apocalypse_ which just came out) and it explicitly references this-- it talks about how she (protagonist) had forgotten that it was her job to mirror back at the man in the story how brilliant and fabulous he was, and it briefly goes through the reactions to that.

(it's an awesome story in so many ways; this is the one that made me cry in the lunch room this week.)