Possibly mixing prototype and module pattern

I have either created something beautiful or something monstrous, and I'm not really sure which, and I don't know where else to turn but here. What I've done:

var MyObject = function(opts) { 
    //init code, set vals, runs when 'new MyObject()' is called
}

MyObject.prototype = (function() {
    //private helper functions
    //scoping is a pain, but doable
    function myPrivateFunction() {}

    return {
        publicFunc1: function() { /* uses myPrivateFunction() */ }
        , publicFunc2: function() { /* uses myPrivateFunction() */ }
    };
})();

MyObject.prototype.publicFunc3 = function() {}
MyObject.prototype.publicFunc4 = function() {}
MyObject.prototype.publicFuncEtc = function() {}

To my surprise, this works, and takes care of a pretty significant problem of creating reusable private functions for various public functions. Of course, I have to do some scoping for the this object, but I feel it's a small price to pay for being able to use private reusable functions. I left the other functions on the outside to avoid having to deal with scoping.

My question is: is this a code smell? and as a corollary, is there a better way to do this?

The commenters pretty much said it all:

• publicFunc3 can't see myPrivateFunction

-
I would declare function() { / uses myPrivateFunction() / } as a private function and then just return a pointer to it:

MyObject.prototype = (function() {
    //private helper functions
    //scoping is a pain, but doable
    function myPrivateFunction() {}
    function myPrivateFunction2() {/* uses myPrivateFunction() */ }
    function myPrivateFunction3() {/* uses myPrivateFunction() */ }

    return {
        publicFunc1: myPrivateFunction2
      , publicFunc2: myPrivateFunction3
    };
})();

• I know there is a "comma first" movement out there, but it looks silly to me

Other than that, this code does not look monstrous to me, if it works for you, then why not.

StackExchange Code Review Q#25454, answer score: 3