BY ANA ACLE AND MARIKA LYNCH

 Two psychologists who believe Elian Gonzalez should remain in Miami on Thursday
 revealed details of their examinations of the 6-year-old boy after obtaining written
 consent from Elian's great-uncle.

 ``Elian has expressed that his father freely expresses his anger out of control and
 in an abusive manner in specific instances,'' said psychologist Alina Lopez-Gottardi,
 who has been seeing Elian since December.

 Psychologist Mitch Spero, who spoke with Elian late Wednesday, said the boy
 ``meets many of the criteria for post-traumatic syndrome'' and predicted that if
 he is separated from his cousin Marisleysis ``he'll suffer irreversible emotional
 damage.''

 The psychologists' public comments came after federal lawyers rejected the
 family's demand that Elian only be turned over to his father if psychologists found
 that it was in the boy's best interests.

 But the psychologists' comments before a coterie of television cameras drew
 immediate criticism from colleagues.

 ``The child is entitled to have his evaluation kept private. Period,'' said Ken
 Goodman, director of the bioethics program at the University of Miami.

 ``I'm dying to know what a psychologist would say about a child who can't go to
 school, come home from school or play in the yard with the extraordinary level of
 electronic eavesdropping that this child is enduring. . . Why now are we trying to
 conduct drive-by psychiatric consultations? This is psychology on the fly,''
 Goodman said.

 Spero said, however, that he was comfortable with speaking publicly, noting that
 he had received a signed consent form from Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez.
 Spero said he plans to talk today to NBC's Today show, The Washington Post
 and The New York Times.

 Elian learned from his great-uncle Lazaro and the morning television news shows
 that his father had arrived in the United States. But the boy, who hasn't seen his
 father Juan Miguel Gonzalez in four months since he was rescued from a
 shipwreck on Thanksgiving, didn't react much, his Miami relatives said.

 ``He was calm,'' great-uncle Delfin Gonzalez said. ``He neither said yes nor no.''

 Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's cousin and caregiver, has said in television
 interviews that she fears Elian will be ``tortured'' psychologically and put in a
 mental hospital if he returns to Cuba. But the relatives say they have not told
 Elian their fears about his fate in Cuba.

 On Thursday, Lazaro Gonzalez, who has temporary custody of Elian, told
 reporters little of the boy's reaction to his father's arrival, saying only ``we have the
 television on.''

 But Elian doesn't usually watch television. He prefers to swing and slide on a
 playset in the backyard or point a toy gun at the media horde across the street.

 On Thursday, Elian did those things and looked happy.

 Herald staff writers Sara Olkon and Jay Weaver and Herald writer Mireidy
 Fernandez contributed to this report.