In this text, the author wants to revisit the place of the «negativity» and the « negative work » in André Green's works, and in the psychoanalytical theory. First, he recalls the history of these notions within occidental thought since Hegel and Keats. Andre Green worked on meanings of negativity using negative work, negativising evanescence and destructiveness. Then, the author examines metapsychological meanings and articulates them with the unconscious and the tendency of a return to a past state up until the inorganic. One is then able to see the negativity as a two-sided tendency, one tendency being fruitful when it is integrated in the unconscious, the other being harmful as it becomes negativism.

The author concludes that an imperative is required in order to realize negative work. When negative work does not take place, destructiveness becomes possible.