I was very surprised this morning, in checking out whether constrict could be used as a noun, that it couldn't--at least in the references I checked.

And now that's got me bothered. What would be a noun that means a mental belief, opinion, or idea that takes a general body of similar beliefs, opinions or ideas and restrains them to a constricted application.

It wouldn't be a construct as applied here because such an idea would be a constriction of a construct.

Any help out there?

Best regards,
WW