I definitely don't denounce the original writers who thought "hey, that's neat, it's kind of like Bruce is the mask and Batman is the real guy" notion, nor do I denounce say, Chris Nolan for throwing that out into the pop culture lexicon a couple of years ago. (Or The Animated Series, which also did it, just less overtly.)

I gripe about how overblown and overused the metaphor is.

His birth name is Bruce Wayne. "Batman" literally is a cape and a mask which he uses to protect his identity and project a symbol. Strictly speaking, both "Batman" and "Public Bruce Wayne" are both personas - the real guy is indeed Bruce Wayne, he just behaves like a more relaxed, less scary Batman.

Basically the only time you ever see "the real guy" is in the Bat-Cave, talking to Alfred or Dick Grayson, while doing training or detective work, and otherwise you're only catching the occasional peak at the real him, which certainly shines through semi-regularly - he's balanced enough mentally to allow himself to enjoy things sometimes, or to use his real personality for some gain somewhere - but usually his guard will go back up before he gets close to new people, unless they really earn the hell out of it.

But the gist of it is that Bruce Wayne isn't the mask, "Public Bruce Wayne" and "Batman" are both masks, and deep down he's just plain Bruce Wayne - not a little boy who never grew up, just a man trying to do right in his own incredibly eccentric way while trying to balance some Freudian psychology quirks - which I suspect he has more control over than anyone who thinks Batman might be unhinged would think.