a kind of grooming

13:49 Oct 12, 2016 

This is about indoctrinating people. They are "groomed", aka prepared and/or brainwashed into believing X = Y, white is black, up is down, etc.

08:08 Oct 12, 2016 

la traduction "mise en confiance" semble apparaître systématiquement à propos d'approches pédophiles.

08:04 Oct 12, 2016 

It is proving hard to find a term. Googling "les dangers d'internet" I found a nice definition ("approches insidieuses avec de longues périodes de dialogue" and the English 'grooming' rather lamely translated as 'mise en confiance'

22:50 Oct 11, 2016 

Une sorte de suggestion ?

20:25 Oct 11, 2016 

would be more like it then (as in FX's answer), but then you lose the negative connotation, because for instance, you might as well have an athlete going through a "préparation psychologique" along with a physical one to get ready for a competition. Anyway, translation isn't an exact science and you have to make (not always easy) choices.

20:09 Oct 11, 2016 

Yes, that is exactly the same notion of 'conditioning' in EN — Pavlov's dogs being the classic example.

But what is missing in 'grooming' is that specific point of training them to react to a stimulus; that might of course be part of their subsequent training, but not per se inherent in the grooming process, which is more about the mindset...

20:02 Oct 11, 2016 

When talking about "conditionnement psychologique", you do have a negative connotation, someone who is "conditionné" has been more or less brainwashed, can't think by himself, a bit like Pavlov's dog being taught forcefully how to react for a specific stimulus. I'm not quite sure it's the same as "conditioning" in EN.

19:45 Oct 11, 2016 

although currently something of a buzzword, I have yet to encounter a FR equivalent that truly sums up the sense as it is used currently.

Of course, literally, it refers to the work of a 'groom' ('lad') whose job is to 'groom' ('panser', étriller', among others) the horses under their care.

Later, it came to have the meaning of 'looking after one's personal appearance' — something that is frequently applied to men (for whom we rarely talk about 'beauty treatment'!) And of coiurse 'dog grooming' ('toilettage pour chiens') — come to think of it, 'toilettage' would be a good term to apply to some of the guys I know too ;-)

Of course, it is also used in the sense of 'preparing for a rôle', just as a royal princess might be 'groomed' for her later rôle as Queen.

But in very recent times, with the greater exposure given to (especially) pædophilia, the term has taken on a sinister and always negative connotation of 'training' e.g. children to (sooner or) later become objects of sexual abuse; this is clearly the connotation intended in this text, and I feel it is very important to maintain the negative element in this translation.