She doesn't come off quite that way, though... not until the moment she resolves to become a Witch completely so the others would finish her off. Everything else up until that point was just nature taking its course. Her consciousness had been pulled into her Soul Gem, and normally this would be where the gem shatters and her soul becomes a grief seed.
But, the isolation field was designed to keep that from happening, and by maintaining her soul gem's integrity, her mind was maintained as well.
An interesting way of looking at it is that so long as the Soul Gem remains intact, then so too is the connection to the mind and body. The body is just a meat puppet - we see this proven twice with Sayaka - once when Madoka throws her Soul Gem off the bridge, and again when Sayaka became a Witch. It was the soul inside that transformed, and not the body.
So, Homura's mind was maintained up until the point that her familiars started to break down the walls of her Soul Gem and complete her transformation into a Witch... And then afterwards... "...So this is what it's like to be a Witch." No memories. Only the pain of your shortcomings, and without even the knowledge of what those shortcomings were to reflect on.
Another point in my favor is that her Labyrinth had already been long-since formed, and yet there were no signs of madness. The entire city they lived in had been fabricated from Homura's memories of her countless loops of time, and it was only when her conscious mind began to remember her past that things began to unravel and the city began to show it's true nature.
Granted, one could say that Homura had completely dissociated herself by forgetting her own memories and living in this fantasy world. But that doesn't necessarily translate into irretrievable 'Insanity' - in fact, Merriam-Webster considers the word dated. It just means that she's suffered a psychological trauma that she'd really not like to think about at that time. (God knows I did this a lot myself, even if it was just 'escapism'. Hell, I'm still doing it now by writing this shit.)
So, I strongly believe that if Ben were to get to her before her familiars could start breaking down her Soul Gem, then her sanity can be rescued.
But, the isolation field was designed to keep that from happening, and by maintaining her soul gem's integrity, her mind was maintained as well.
An interesting way of looking at it is that so long as the Soul Gem remains intact, then so too is the connection to the mind and body. The body is just a meat puppet - we see this proven twice with Sayaka - once when Madoka throws her Soul Gem off the bridge, and again when Sayaka became a Witch. It was the soul inside that transformed, and not the body.
So, Homura's mind was maintained up until the point that her familiars started to break down the walls of her Soul Gem and complete her transformation into a Witch... And then afterwards... "...So this is what it's like to be a Witch." No memories. Only the pain of your shortcomings, and without even the knowledge of what those shortcomings were to reflect on.
Another point in my favor is that her Labyrinth had already been long-since formed, and yet there were no signs of madness. The entire city they lived in had been fabricated from Homura's memories of her countless loops of time, and it was only when her conscious mind began to remember her past that things began to unravel and the city began to show it's true nature.
Granted, one could say that Homura had completely dissociated herself by forgetting her own memories and living in this fantasy world. But that doesn't necessarily translate into irretrievable 'Insanity' - in fact, Merriam-Webster considers the word dated. It just means that she's suffered a psychological trauma that she'd really not like to think about at that time. (God knows I did this a lot myself, even if it was just 'escapism'. Hell, I'm still doing it now by writing this shit.)
So, I strongly believe that if Ben were to get to her before her familiars could start breaking down her Soul Gem, then her sanity can be rescued.