Dr. Appel was born in Lancaster, PA, and received his Ph.D. (1918) and M.D. (1924) from Harvard University. He was a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania (31 years), and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry (1955–62).
Dr. Appel was instrumental in helping to start a number of new innovations, including the Experiment in Living, for young people to live abroad (a concept taken to the Peace Corps), and he supported Dr. Emily Hudd in her endeavors in marriage counseling and family therapy, eventually integrating the Marriage Council of Philadelphia as a Division of Family Studies in the University’s Department of Psychiatry.
He became an active member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry at its founding after WWII and was asked to survey the conditions in state hospitals. His report of the shocking conditions he found in state hospitals led to his proposal for a Congressional Commission to examine the situation during his APA Presidential Year. The result was the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, which finally led to the passage of national legislation for federal funds to support new programs in mental health and retardation.
Dr. Appel was a member and later President of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and President of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health.
Dr. Appel served as President of the American Psychiatric Association (1953–54).