Satinover was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 4, 1947, to Joseph and Sena Satinover. He lived in and around Chicago until moving to California at the beginning of his high school years. Satinover won a National Merit Scholarship. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971. He obtained a Master of Education degree in Clinical Psychology and Public Practice from Harvard University, a medical degree at the University of Texas, and a Master of Science in Physics at Yale University. He received a diploma in analytical psychology from the C. G. Jung Institute of Zürich, becoming their youngest graduate. He trained there and became an accredited Jungian analyst. He received a PhD in physics in the laboratory of Didier Sornette at the University of Nice in France, in 2009.