finding name of instances created

[André]

Short version of what I am looking for:

Given a class "public_class" which is instantiated a few times e.g.

a = public_class()
b = public_class()
c = public_class()

I would like to find out the name of the instances so that I could
create a list of them e.g.
['a', 'b', 'c']

I've read the Python Cookbook, Python in a Nutshell, Programming
Python, Learning Python, ... googled (probably missed something
obvious), all to no avail.

=====
Longer version:

If I can do the above, I believe I could do the following thing which
is what I am really after eventually.

Given the statement

>> a = public_class()

I would like to generate

>> my_dict['a'] = private_class()

so that one could write

>> a.apparently_simple_method()

and that, behind the scene, I could translate that as

>> my_dict['a'].not_so_simple_method()

as well as do things like

>> for name in my_dict:
>>     do_stuff(name)

Any help, pointers, sketches or outline of solution would be greatly
appreciated.

André