History Main / NoObjectPermanence

See also HeadInTheSandManagement, which is the foolish belief that if you ignore something bad it will stop being a problem and go away, and OstrichHeadHiding for the AnimalStereotype that ostriches as a species behave this way.

** In ''Film/28DaysLater'' the infected are not particularly bright, but some are. While some infected are fully capable of become ninja style hunting machines, using ambush tactics and navigating very large buildings on a whim, others are dumb as rocks, seemingly forgetting they heard their prey in a room and not really bothering to search it until giving up and going after somebody else.

* In the ''WebVideo/RealTimeFandub Games'' GagDub of VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake, Claire exploits [[ScaryLibrarian Mr. X]]'s lack of object permanence by coming in and out of a room to troll him into going up and down a flight of stairs, prompting him to repeat "Where'd she go?!" each time she closes the door.

* In the WebVideo/RealTimeFandub Games on VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake exploits [[ScaryLibrarian Mr. X]]'s lack of object permanence by having Claire coming in and out of a room to troll him into going up and down a flight of stairs, prompting him to repeat "Where'd she go?!" each time she closes the door.

* The British musician [[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/24/the-abyss Clive Wearing]] suffered a mental condition that brought about profound retrograde and anteretrograde amnesia, meaning not only did he lost most of his prior memories, but that he is unable to form new memories that last for more than a few seconds. An object in front of him may as well have just appeared if he blinks. His wife Deborah describes the situation like this:

-->'''Baby Mike:''' Well, Servo's gone. And he's not right in front of my face, so that means he's never coming back. [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry That upsets me.]] Waah.

-->'''Baby Mike:''' Hey, you're no longer right in front of me. I can only assume this means I'll never see you again. [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry That upsets me.]] Waah.

* ''Website/TheOnion'' report: [[http://www.theonion.com/video/us-high-school-students-falling-behind-china-many,30903/ 10% of U.S. high school students graduate without basic object permanence skills]].

* ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'': Slim's idiotic minions are unable to recognize him when he is in his disguise and think that he has suddenly vanished and been replaced by somebody else when he puts it on. He tries putting the disguise on one piece at a time while they are watching him and they still think he has vanished as soon as he puts the glasses on.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The Gap Chasm in the ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'' series had a Forgetfulness spell on it that caused something like this: Anyone who went to the Gap Chasm would promptly forget that it existed upon leaving.
* Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Mute'': The hero's mutant power is that once he leaves the view of another person, that person completely forgets him.
* In Creator/RayBradbury's short story "No Particular Night or Morning," one of the astronauts develops this due to being in space too long, starts worrying that people, things, even places stop existing once he leaves or otherwise can no longer directly see them, and goes slowly insane as a result.
* In the ''Isaac Asimov's Robot City'' series, two specialised security robots ordered to guard a valuable object have trouble with this concept -- so, rather than lock the object in a safe, they keep it on a table so they can watch it all the time. This doesn't turn out to be a very good strategy.
* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Inverted with the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal which is such a stupid animal that it thinks if you can't see it, it can't see you.
* The title characters in "Nobody" by Jennifer Lynn Barnes have this as an inherent power. Generally, no one sees or notices them anyway, due to a PerceptionFilter power, but those who do quickly forget about them the minute they aren't looking anymore.

* In ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', Zaphod and the gang encounter [[spoiler: the Ruler of the Universe]], who happily accepts a Solipsistic view of reality:
--> “How can I tell," said the man, "that the past isn't a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?”

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In the ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' episode "All About You-niverse", Alex attempts to hide herself from her mom after having "borrowed" money from the Sub Station to purchase a vending machine. After Alex hides, Zeke begins talking as if Alex is no longer in the room, even though all she did was cover herself with a sheet.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Unforgettable": An alien race called the Ramuran gives off pheromones that interfere with long-term memories. Once a Ramuran leaves another creature's presence, after a few hours the other creature will have completely forgotten about ever meeting the Ramuran.

* The Silents in the season premier episodes of Series 6 of ''Series/DoctorWho'' are a race of aliens that are forgotten as soon as you stop looking at them.

* In season five of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', BigBad Glory's magic causes anyone who sees her [[spoiler: transform into Ben]] immediately forget that such a thing happened - except Spike, for some reason, who is extremely annoyed that he has to keep explaining this to everyone else. Justified since AWizardDidIt.

* One of the GoodBadBugs of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' allows you to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0WqAmuSXEQ hide behind even the smallest cans]] and certain Combine officers won't be able to see you as long as you can't see them.

* In one ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2011-02-04 strip]], the father is playing "where's the ball?" with his child, when he replies "For the last time, DAD, I don't have object permanence!"

--->'''Father:''' Peekaboo!
--->'''Baby:''' [[LaughingMad Ahahahahaha!]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'': Slim's idiotic minions are unable to recognize him when he is in his disguise and think that he has suddenly vanished and been replaced by somebody else when he puts it on. He tries putting the disguise on one piece at a time while they are watching him and they still think he has vanished as soon as he puts the glasses on.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Three Gems and a Baby", [[FusionDance Garnet]] unfuses in front of Steven in order to show him that he can unfuse too (since she thinks he's a fusion). Steven, who is only a few months old at that point, looks around in distress, grabs at the air above Ruby and Sapphire, and promptly begins to cry.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

--> "His ability to perceive what he saw and heard was unimpaired. But he did not seem to be able to retain any impression of anything for more than a blink. Indeed, if he did blink, his eyelids parted to reveal a new scene. The view before the blink was utterly forgotten. Each blink, each glance away and back, brought him an entirely new view."

Use of this trope will often show a severe [[YouFailLogicForever failure of logic]]. Characters lacking object permanence will have, at the very least, a normal memory, even though the ability to remember anything depends on object permanence. If you believed that this article only existed while you were reading it, you would find yourself unable to remember it later. This is not a problem in fiction land.

* An episode of WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy plays with this trope when Stewie plays peak-a-boo with Peter. Whenever Peter puts his hands over his eyes, Stewie thinks his father has disappeared.

* In one ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2145 strip]], the father is playing "where's the ball?" with his child, when he replies "For the last time, DAD, I don't have object permanence!"
** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2277 Another strip starts with a baby adrift in a blank void]], desperately philosophising about how the universe suddenly ceased to exist. Yes, he's playing peekaboo.

* TruthInTelevision for very young infants. If you meet someone who isn't a very young infant and has a pattern of acting like this, you should take him to a psychologist.

* In Creator/RayBradbury's short story "No Particular Night or Morning", one of the astronauts develops this due to being in space too long, starts worrying that people, things, even places stop existing once he leaves or otherwise can no longer directly see them, and goes slowly insane as a result.

* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode ''Film/MerlinsShopOfMysticalWonders'', a poorly-executed magic spell causes Mike to sort-of revert to being a baby.[[note]]He has the mental processes of a baby, [[RuleOfFunny but keeps the body and speech abilities of an adult]].[[/note]]

* A ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch, "Dense and Densibility"--a mash-up of ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'' and ''Film/DumbAndDumber''--features two sisters who are so stupid that, among other things, whenever someone leaves the room they say, "Oh dear, X is dead."
* In season five of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', BigBad Glory's magic causes anyone who sees her [[spoiler: transform into Ben]] immediately forget that such a thing happened-- except Spike, for some reason, who is extremely annoyed that he has to keep explaining this to everyone else. Justified since AWizardDidIt.

* Doofenshmirtz from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' can't recognize Perry the Platypus without his hat- if Perry takes off his hat in front of him, he assumes Perry has somehow switched places with a regular platypus. Perry uses this to his advantage all the time.

* The old myth that ostriches bury their heads in the sand is based on this: the idea being that an ostrich is so stupid that it assumes any threat it can't see isn't real. In truth, ostriches stick their heads in the sand to manage their nests.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism Solipsism]] is the epistemological view that only one's own mind is sure to exist; therefore anything outside your own mind might be an illusion. Needless to say, this creates a wide array of philosophical and metaphysical difficulties.