In [18]: class B: ...: def __b(self): ...: print "asdf" ...: In [19]: b = B() In [20]: b.__b() --------------------------------------------------------------------------- AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last) in () ----> 1 b.__b() AttributeError: B instance has no attribute '__b' In [21]: dir(b) Out[21]: ['_B__b', '__doc__', '__module__'] In [22]: b._B__b() asdf