Python object deleting itself

'self' is only a reference to the object. 'del self' is deleting the 'self' reference from the local namespace of the kill function, instead of the actual object.

To see this for yourself, look at what happens when these two functions are executed:

>>> class A():
...     def kill_a(self):
...         print self
...         del self
...     def kill_b(self):
...         del self
...         print self
... 
>>> a = A()
>>> b = A()
>>> a.kill_a()
<__main__.A instance at 0xb771250c>
>>> b.kill_b()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<stdin>", line 7, in kill_b
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'self' referenced before assignment

You don't need to use del to delete instances in the first place. Once the last reference to an object is gone, the object will be garbage collected. Maybe you should tell us more about the full problem.