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▲ shagie 4 hours ago

I'd contend that his insecurities were about the culture that he found himself in... which incidentally is an important point.

From book 6:

    "... Ms. Maloney, as soon as you signed the Articles, you became a spacer." I almost smacked myself in the head for saying that. I couldn’t even imagine how many times I’d said I wasn’t a spacer. I sighed inwardly at my own stupidity.
This is timestamped as 2372.. book 2 is 2352.

I don't see it as him being insecure about himself as such. He's as much of a chad as any physically fit 19-year-old is...

He's still as culturally insecure at 20 as he is when he's 40 - trying to figure out how he fits in as a spacer who wasn't born to a spacer family.

So how does one handle the cultural insecurities at different points in one's life? At 20? At 40? nearly 50?

Book 5 gets a bit into the difference between the expectations of a planet (or station) life and that of a spacer and the stress there on relationships (and how they can work).

From the start of In Ashes Born this is stated quite clearly when talking to a therapist:

    My sessions with Mal Gains continued to be interesting even if I didn’t find them terribly fruitful. He introduced me to more family-of-origin stuff. He placed great store in the idea that I’d been raised in a culture of academe with its values of knowledge, truth-seeking, and reputation but then shifted to the culture of spacer with values like dependability, competence, and upward mobility.
I'd contend that the overall arch of Ishmael's story is about seeking to be part of a family and with various people helping him learn that along the way.