George pits René Girard's explanation of sadomasochism against those of conventional psychology. He shows the latter to be confused and incomplete. Sadomasochists are those who have this obsessive yet accurate understanding that all desire feeds on the painful obstacle that stands between it and its goal. The obstacle, and the pain, is what convinces desire that transcendence lays beyond it. For sadomasochists, pain is the sacrament through which they partake of the transcendental being pursued by all desire.