¿La clase comparable es igual a la función funciona en una variable privada?

Well my code works, but I just can't understand why a private variable works in this case, inside function equals().

Or is it just a trick that if you call another object from inside the same kind of object structure then the private identifier doesn't count?

public class TestClass implements Comparable <TestClass> {
    private final String name;
    public TestClass(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        return name.hashCode();
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (obj instanceof TestClass) {
            return ((TestClass) obj).name.equals(name); //<- how does this work, isn't name private?
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public int compareTo(TestClass test) {
        int thisValue = hashCode();
        int otherValue = test.hashCode();
        if (thisValue < otherValue) {
            return -1;
        } else if (thisValue > otherValue) {
            return 1;
        } else {
            return 0;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return name;
    }
}