Bakan wrote on a wide range of topics including psychoanalysis, religion, philosophy, and research methodology, as well as child abuse.
In his book "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition" (1958) he attempted to trace the roots of early psychoanalytic concepts and methods in the Kabbalah, the Zohar, and talmudic interpretations.
Other books by Bakan include "On Method: Toward a Reconstruction of Psychological Investigation" (1967); "Disease, Pain, and Sacrifice: Toward a Psychology of Suffering" (1968); "Slaughter of the Innocents: A Study of the Battered Child Phenomenon (1971)"; "And They Took Themselves Wives: The Emergence of Patriarchy in Western Civilization" (1979); and "Maimonides on Prophecy" (1991).
Bakan retired in 1991, and served as professor emeritus in York University's Department of Psychology until his death in 2004.
David married Mildred ("Millie") Blynn, who became a professor of philosophy at York University, in 1948, and they had six children: Joseph, Deborah, Abigail, Jonathan, Daniel and Jacob.