BY CAROL ROSENBERG

 Elian Gonzalez is up late these days, doesn't go to school and bit his Miami family's
 chosen psychologist on the arm recently. Earlier this week he told family members
 that he fears returning to Cuba means being put out to sea -- on a raft -- to go
 back the way he came.

 Mental health experts selected by the government to advise it on returning Elian to
 his father's custody say they have spotted signs that Elian is under extraordinary
 stress. They talk of ''a progressive deterioration'' in his condition and say the political
 whirlwind in which he has been embroiled could be causing him emotional harm.

 Supporters of the Miami family's efforts to keep Elian here dispute that assessment.
 They say the only time his mood changes is after he has spoken with his father on the
 phone.

 Nearly five months after Elian became the center of an international custody fight,
 his mental state, and the impact of returning him to his father and the battle surrounding
 him, have become the topic of debate between those who want to see a quick reunion
 with his father and those who want him to remain with his Miami relatives.

 ''We have seen a progressive deterioration,'' said Dr. Paulina Kernberg, a child
 psychoanalyst from Cornell University medical college who is one of three mental
 health experts chosen by the Justice Department to advise on how to reunite the
 child with his father. ''We are all seriously, seriously concerned about this misuse
 of this situation of this boy who has enough tragedy to deal with in his life.''

 Kernberg has never met Elian, and is basing her observations on television
 footage and conversations with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez and great-uncle,
 Lazaro Gonzalez.

 'DEEP TROUBLE'

 Added Dr. Jerry Wiener, professor emeritus in psychiatry and behavioral sciences
 at George Washington University and another advisor to the Justice Department:
 ''His situation is deteriorating . . . Elian is in very deep trouble. Either things are
 being put in his mouth or he's been led to understand that he's the one who
 makes decisions.''

 Wiener also has never met Elian. But the government experts say they no longer
 see news video of Elian giving toothy grins, hearty waves and enthusiastic
 V-signs outside his great-uncle's Little Havana home. When captured on camera
 lately, the 6-year-old looks tired, wary, lackluster, they say.

 By not shielding the boy from the political tug-of-war over his fate and by refusing
 to work out an orderly transfer to his father, Elian's Miami relatives ''have put him
 in harm's way in every possible way,'' Wiener said.

 Armando Gutierrez, the family's spokesman who has spent long hours in Lazaro
 Gonzalez's house and seen the child up close throughout most of his nearly five
 month stay here, disputes the assessment.

 'A FIGHTER'

 ''I don't think Elian is deteriorating. Elian is a fighter and I think Elian feels
 comfortable with the protection he's getting from his family; he knows they're
 fighting for him,'' he said.

 Gutierrez says he has no concerns that the child's current situation could cause
 him to suffer a nervous breakdown. ''He didn't have a breakdown in 50 hours in the
 waters,'' Gutierrez said. ''I have not seen any signs of him having a nervous
 breakdown.''

 Either way, there are signs that the child has been experiencing stress lately --
 and acting out.

 This week, Barry University president Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin reported that the
 child misunderstood a discussion of taking him to Washington to mean he was
 going to Cuba -- on a raft.

 ''They were preparing to go to Washington,'' the nun told Good Morning America,
 in an account confirmed by Gutierrez, who consulted with Marisleysis. ''He woke
 up and was so upset because he thought he would have to go back on the raft.
 And so it took pretty much until we could go pick Marisleysis up at the hospital,
 that he began to see that there was no raft and that he was not going anywhere.''

 No Miami family member has told the boy that he would return to Cuba on a plane
 rather than a raft, Gutierrez said. The subject is taboo, although Gutierrez said he
 believes Juan Miguel has told Elian in a telephone call he could come home ''just
 like the grandmothers,'' who visited earlier this year.

 During Wednesday night's meetings between Lazaro, Marisleysis and Attorney
 General Janet Reno at the nun's Miami Beach house, Elian bit Alina
 Lopez-Gottardi, the psychologist who has been working with Elian since
 December.

 Lopez-Gottardi did not return a message from The Herald, but a witness who was
 in Sister Jeanne's house at the time said the child had been mostly bored during
 the meeting and had amused himself by watching cartoons in a nearby room.

 He spent the evening ''hyperkinetic,'' the witness said, running between cartoons,
 the door to the dining room, where Reno was meeting family members inside, and
 the kitchen, where government officials, two psychologists, a baby sitter hired by
 Sister Jeanne and others had gathered.

 At one point, the boy reached up to the counter to grab at some food or a drink.
 Lopez-Gottardi reached around him with one arm to pull him back. He sunk his
 teeth into her arm as she shouted, No me muerdas! No me muerdas!, ''Don't bite
 me!''

 She then let him go, and he raced off.

 Said Kernberg: '''A child who has problems psychologically, tends to do that [bite]
 when they feel misunderstood or controlled or coerced.''

 Also of concern to the government psychiatrists was last week's homemade
 videotape of the child angrily telling his father he did not want to return to Cuba,
 and that Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his family should come to Miami.

 Up until that point, Wiener said, the child had looked happy and well adjusted on
 television footage. Suddenly, he appeared to be angrily emulating his great-uncle,
 he said.

 ''He looked scripted and rehearsed. He looked a little bit like a robot, repeating
 these gestures,'' Wiener said. ''I mean what kind of 6-year-old talks like that?
 What kind of 6-year-old gives that kind of a statement, in a rehearsed way on
 camera. It was shameful.''

 Cuban Americans who advocate the child staying here -- and argue that his father
 should defect and join him in Miami -- say they saw in the videotape the heartfelt
 sentiment of a child who understands perfectly his political environment.

 FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY

 But even if that were true, said Dr. Alan Delamater, a pediatric psychologist of the
 University of Miami, it is the responsibility of his Miami family to prepare Elian for
 what he characterized as an ''imminent transfer'' to his father, as dictated by the
 government.

 ''I do think even 6-year-olds have their own thoughts and opinions and feelings.
 Certainly it is important for adults to understand how kids feel and to take that
 into account,'' said Delamater, who is not one of the government's advisors but
 who has been watching the situation for months.

 ''But at the same time, responsible adults make decisions as responsible adults
 do. They don't allow 6-year-olds who are in such conditions and vulnerable to
 dictate what their conditions should be.''

 Others were alarmed by the time of the taping, sometime after midnight, against a
 backdrop of a chaotic, politically charged home life rather than the peace and
 protection that they say a child who only recently lost his mother would require.

 ''He's not going to school. He's having instruction at home. He doesn't have
 privacy. He doesn't have peer relations,'' said Kernberg, a fluent Spanish speaker
 and native of Chile.

 ''He doesn't have a daily routine. He's being kept up to ungodly hours at night.
 You saw him playing at 11:30 [p.m.] with all the lights. He's facing all the people
 who are shouting and demonstrating, which they have the right to do but which is
 not so nice for the child.''

 Gutierrez responded that Elian is doing fine with ''home schooling'' by a teacher
 and visits from his classmates from the Lincoln Marti School.

 And he disputes that the child is sleep deprived. ''Most of the time he falls asleep
 at 9,'' Gutierrez said. ''Sometimes 7:30, sometimes 8:30. I'm telling you, this kid
 gets lots of sleep.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald