see Doug Crockford's page on this. You have to do it indirectly with something that can access the scope of the private variable.
another example:
Incrementer = function(init) {
var counter = init || 0; // "counter" is a private variable
this._increment = function() { return counter++; }
this._set = function(x) { counter = x; }
}
Incrementer.prototype.increment = function() { return this._increment(); }
Incrementer.prototype.set = function(x) { return this._set(x); }
use case:
js>i = new Incrementer(100);
[object Object]
js>i.increment()
100
js>i.increment()
101
js>i.increment()
102
js>i.increment()
103
js>i.set(-44)
js>i.increment()
-44
js>i.increment()
-43
js>i.increment()
-42