All a negation is is something that transforms a part of the internal contradiction. The negation of the negation is something which either brings back the original contradiction, or transforms it further in such a way that it directly contradicts the original transformation.

Just because you don't understand how something works philosophically does not make it 'dribble'.

And yes, you could use materialist analysis. You should! But you can also understand it in a purely dialectical method. However, I agree, it isn't as useful as the combined aspect of a dialectical materialism, which examines the idea using a dialectical method, then tests those hypotheses using a materialist method.